Between a Rock and a Hard Place
by SilverStarShine94
Summary: The Third Shinobi World War didn't finish quite so early, Haruno Sakura is born into the sworn enemy of Konoha - Iwa, and she just so happens to meet one Hatake Kakashi more than she would really like to. It's just another day on the front line. KakaSaku.
1. Chapter 1

**Between a Rock and a Hard Place.**

_Summary: _The Third Great Shinobi World War didn't finish quite so early, Haruno Sakura is born into the sworn enemy of Konoha - Iwa, and she just so happens to meet one Hatake Kakashi more than she would really like to. It's just another day on the front line. _KakaSaku. Au._

* * *

...

A rustle.

A flash of red, like a brief flicker of flame, could be seen amongst the tall swaying grass in one of the many plains in Kusa no Tuni - Grass Country. The source of the noise was a dark haired young boy of about thirteen, clad in the fierce scarlet of Iwagakure shinobi, lying hidden in the waist height grass. Rubbing one of the blades of grass together, idly, he shot a dark-eyed glance at his two companions - one male, and one female; both dressed identically to him - who lay perfectly still, waiting.

This was the fifth hour of their sentry duty. The objective of this mission was to observe the area around the new Tatara Bridge, which was used to supply Iwa in a fresh assault into Kusa - and, eventually, Konoha. It was a replacement for the old Kannabi Bridge which had been destroyed some fourteen odd years earlier by the Leaf.

Letting a puff of air escape his thin lips, he extended his chakra out to feel for enemies for the fourteenth time that hour. Finding nothing, he deemed it acceptable to break the stony (pun not intended, he thought, inwardly patting himself on the back) silence between his teammates. He spoke quickly - in the vaguely lilting, lifting, accent of Kusa that he had never quite been able to rid himself of.

"If Sunagakure just _accepted _that their Third Kazekage was gone then _this _would all be over and we could all go back to -"

There was a barely perceptible rustle before a noticeably deeper, heavily Iwa accented voice cut through the first with an irritable air, "Go back to what, _Kazuhiko-chan? _We're shinobi: we'd be fighting and killing bastards just the same as we are now, you stupid, filthy Kusa."

A sneer spread slowly across the face of the man speaking. A few years older than the other two: he was obviously far taller and the bulging muscles of his biceps that were clearly visible through the straining net that covered his, otherwise bare, arms gave the appearance of far greater strength. He too had hair and eyes as dark as a starless sky.

This was followed by a distinctly feminine, but by no means lady-like, snort, "Maybe what Kazu means, Tatsuo, is that if this were over maybe trade could go back to normal, and Iwa could start building good things like hospitals... proper training academies and markets again. And maybe not quite so many people would die horrifically. You know small things like that."

The final member of the team - the young girl - lay stretched out on the grass like the other two. Unlike her companions she did not have the dark hair, and equally dark eyes, that were so common in Iwa. With the exception of the odd bright blond, her hair stood out like a sore thumb. A very brilliantly pink sore thumb. That combined with her unusually cat-like eyes - in a startling shade of what Tatsuo persistently called Konoha-Grade-Leaf-Green, despite the bruises he gained - made her countenance one that was not easily forgotten. This was not a particular asset for a kunoichi.

"Don't you go all sarcastic on me, _Haruno_. It's not like it's even Iwa's fault anyway... First, Suna coming into _our _land, then calling in their little fuckbuddies Konoha to help out... Makes me sick to my fuckin' stomach," hissed Tatsuo.

"Yeah, Konoha are worse than Suna," Kazu agreed, voice partially muffled by his forearm.

Tatsuo turned, eyes glinting in a way that always meant impending insults, "You're only saying that because they killed your total dyke of a girlfriend."

Kazu didn't say anything, but they all heard his teeth clack together and saw his nostrils expand as he took in a deep breath. Sakura took the opportunity to slam her elbow into the back of Tatsuo's head - small, white teeth bared in a ferocious snarl. He muffled a curse and rolled over to aim a powerful kick at her armoured stomach just as she moved to launch herself at him.

Suddenly, the ground beneath them shook ferociously as though it was a giant, growling beast. More than one of the trees at the edge of the grass they were in shook and toppled, splintering to the earth with a heart-stopping crash.

"_Kazu!" _Sakura hissed, drawing up onto her knees and flicking out a kunai - emerald eyes scanning the grass.

"It was me. I swear! It _wasn't me._" Kazu gasped, moving to crouch.

As though to prove him right, the wind brought the unmistakeable sound of metal clashing against metal and a brief cry of pain. They exchanged looks - fight forgotten. Sakura's mouth hardened into a thin line as she nodded in the direction of the noise and then began to slink forward like a feline through the swaying grass. Tatsuo's hands went straight for the metal hilts of his two katana.

Grasping them, he felt the comforting weight of the weapons and smiled inwardly. Haruno and that pussy Kazu just intended to check out the fight, but he wasn't going to be backing away. Not when he knew they were Konoha - judging by the latest intelligence they had received.

Leafs, he thought - narrowing his eyes, always deserved to die.

...

Sakura was not pleased.

First of all; sentry duties just were not good. Sentry duties with her team were equally unpleasant - it was rare for Kazu to be quiet for long, and Tatsuo was just a complete jerk. Glancing back at him - barely visible through the grass, dark eyes shining in a way that she really didn't like - Sakura frowned. Kazu still looked a little paler than his normal tanned hue, and she could see a vein pulsing in his forehead. _Oh, Tatsuo, you've done it now._

Tatsuo was technically leader of their group - as he was the highest rank - but most of the planning and actual judgements usually fell to her because Tatsuo just didn't want to deal with it. Kazu was too docile to think of questioning, _normally_. But, Tatsuo loved to fight - loved it to the point where he would risk their lives and the objective of the mission; simply to _observe_the area around the new Tatara Bridge and not interfere unless it was absolutely necessary; if it meant a good battle.

And now that he had gotten Kazu all riled up, the stupid idiot: so fighting was almost inevitable.

Sakura swallowed heavily and ran a hand through her long pink hair, absently plucking a blade of grass from the shiny, well cared for tresses. The crown of her head felt warm from the attentions of the mild, if slightly humid, climate of Kusa. The grating sound of kunai against kunai set her teeth on edge as she crept under the shadow of the trees. The tiniest coppery hint of blood teased her senses above the bitter smell of warm mud and organic decay, and she knew she hadn't imagined it because Tatsuo inhaled sharply and grinned wickedly.

If Tatsuo actually ordered her to fight - it was a _compulsion._ He would - she knew he would. Besides, she wouldn't leave her team.

A few more metres of creeping through the undergrowth listening to the something that sounded suspiciously like someone gargling their own blood and Sakura really wished she was back in that pretty, warm meadow. But, of course that wouldn't last.

Then, Tatsuo was touching her bare arm lightly - his fingertips quivering with excitement, "We're going in - right goddamn in."

"What formation?" Sakura whispered.

A glance at Kazu proved her worries to be well-founded. He was shaking - big, dark, normally sweet, eyes wide and staring. She hated when he got like this.

"Uh, V. The V formation."

They all knew he wouldn't stick to any formation. He was an all-for-one type shinobi - how he had made chuunin was anyone's guess.

"Huh. Trite," she muttered out of the corner of her mouth, trying to soothe her own anxieties.

"Shadup, girlie."

Through a gap in the trees Sakura could see that it was definitely Konoha nin fighting several of their own; she could tell by the ninja attire they were wearing. Three out of the four were largely non-descript, but one had a shock of _silver_ hair that caught the golden fingers of light streaming through the trees in an almost startling way. Weird.

"Are you ready?" Tatsuo hissed.

Sakura nodded, swallowing again. She stared resolutely at that strange, spiky, silver hair that seemed to defy gravity - no matter how that guy moved it still stayed as it was; pointy enough to skewer enemies on.

_Ready as I'll ever be._

...

This was every bit as foolish as she had thought it would be.

Sakura watched grimly as yet another one of her Earth-bushins was stabbed into a crumbling pile of dirt. These were Leaf _ANBU_, and even with the back-up of the other team of Iwa chuunin they were being beaten badly.

It had all started terribly anyway. Tatsuo had gone solo almost immediately - slash-happy as always. Kazu usually stayed near her, but he seemed even more _eager _than usual, and had launched himself at the nearest enemy with an almost frightening gusto. She could see him now, out of the corner of her eye, pinned down by some kind of roots - still struggling viciously, eyes bulging, neck tendons straining: the hair-trigger of his calm personality long since snapped. They were going to die - or, at least, Kazu would die if _she couldn't get to him._

And now that man with the strangely alluring - weird, Sakura corrected - hair was charging towards her at near lightning speed. The way the light caught his near full-face mask it almost looked like he was smiling beneath it, but the look in his single, visible eye told her he wasn't. It dawned on her just how tall and strong he was in comparison to her when all she could do was put her forearms up to protect herself when he rammed into her.

She flew through the air and crashed into the undergrowth in a way that jarred all her bones and made it feel as though she had left part of her back in the clearing. Rolling onto her knees, Sakura moved to leap away just as a large hand grasped her thick hair and dragged her up by it despite the way she clawed and kicked. She stopped moving when the cold steel of a kunai was pressed against her throat. Her scalp began to prickle and tingle.

Up close she could see that his hair really was silver, and that he wore a dark, tight, mask that covered half of his face. Only one eye showed because of the forehead protector that slanted across the other one. Sakura took in these details as her quick mind worked on a solution to this situation that wouldn't end with her throat slashed.

"Well, little girl, I'll let you go," he smiled, or - at least - Sakura thought he did judging by the way his one visible eye crinkled, "but not your teammates."

His grip on her long, pink hair loosened a little until the tips of her toes touched the ground. Sakura frowned up at his strange masked face and shock of silver hair. This had to be a trick or a trap, but even if it wasn't... to leave her teammates to certain death -

_Oh, **hell **no._

Planting one foot firmly on the ground, she heaved herself backwards and pulled her head away from his grasp despite the disheartening number of petal coloured strands that stayed grasped in his fist. The only thing left to do was fight, and the only move she had that would help at all now would be the last big thing she could manage with the chakra she had left. Even with her chakra control.

Sakura threw a right hook at him - making no attempt to disguise the punch.

"Never!" she hissed.

He side-stepped easily, swinging his arm to flick his kunai to her throat - presumably. But, that didn't matter. Her fist connected with the soft earth with devastating force; tiny ripples spread out from the epicentre of the strike first, followed by the ground ripping itself apart. Dirt, roots, and grass flew up into the air between them, and Sakura saw him falter and leap backwards - one dark eye wide and surprised.

She smiled slightly - this was the only thing she could do that was even slightly impressive.

Unfortunately, the leaf ANBU recovered quickly and retaliated by throwing a volley of shurikan at her that pierced the edges of her dress and pinned her to a tall oak tree. The breath was forced from her lungs in a pained gasp that she didn't quite manage to stifle. None of the weapons had even scratched her skin. She wondered why he didn't just kill her - it was obvious that he could. There had to be a reason.

He advanced on her with the sinuous gait of a practised hunter that demanded attention even as she knew she should be struggling to get away. Somewhere, it sounded like so far off, she heard Tatsuo's distinctive voice - coloured with anger - and wondered if Kazu had been strangled, or crushed yet. The Leaf ANBU stopped too close for her to be entirely comfortable and put two gloved hands on the tree on either side of her.

The way he hovered over her with two strong arms planted just above her head - caging her in - made Sakura uncomfortable in a way that she had never quite experience. She wanted to squirm away from his intense gaze, but the shurikan and her own training kept her in place.

"Tell me all you know about the new bridge, and leave your team, and I promise I'll let you go unharmed," he said, in a deep, smooth voice.

"Never! I said - I'll _never leave my team_. You," Sakura spat, so flustered the only reply she could think of was one of Tatsuo's many Leaf insults, "... you _tree shagger_."

The hearty, deep, male laugher that followed startled her more than anything. Sakura felt herself blush scarlet from her neck to the roots of her hair. If she didn't die from a kunai at her throat, it felt like she was going to die of embarrassment. It didn't occur to her to attack him while he was near bent over with laughter; visible eye streaming, and wild hair shaking frantically. Besides, he would definitely pummel her... and probably do so while still laughing at her...

_The bark humping, root licking, tree shagger._

Sakura tightened her previously lax hands into white knuckled fists, furiously indignant in a way that only a thirteen year old girl could manage, "Shut up!"

"You stuck with your team, I admire that," the Leaf ANBU replied, voice still holding traces of mirth, "and we know all we need to know about the bridge."

Shocked, _furious, _open-mouthed, silence followed.

"I was just messing with you, Iwa-chan."

He stepped back and turned around just as she was about to scream at him.

"I'm turning my back now," his voice became suddenly deadly serious, snipping her anger in the bud, "and you had better go and get those little boyfriends of yours before I turn around, and decide to get rid of you after all."

Sakura faltered, stared hard at his back for a moment, then pulled the shurikan from her dress as quickly as her fumbling fingers could manage and running back in the direction of the battle. Reinforcements had arrived - she could feel them.

Some part of her wanted to say '_thank you', _but it was too late for that now. And he was an enemy.

Then, she saw both of her teammates alive: Kazu covered in scratches and slashes, and Tatsuo had clearly been burned on one side of his body, but they were _alive_. She saw Tatsuo jerk his head in the direction away from the fight. She was so relieved that she almost endeavoured not to mock him for retreating later. Almost. They had never been obliged to fight - the job they were assigned to do was watch, she thought - guiltily, as they retreated.

The Iwa jounin teams that had arrived would take care of it. Sakura tried not to think about the fact that them 'taking care of it' might mean that the silver haired Leaf would die. It didn't matter. She stared hard at Kazu to try and determine whether or not he would need the special, calming herb medicine he had made her keep for him. The way he was flinching, and the sticky mixture of saliva and blood she could see on his chin, even from a distance, told her he would. She ran a little faster to try and reach them and just _get away_ from here.

"Those Leafs! I hate them so fucking much!" grunted Tatsuo as she approached him; pain was obviously keeping him from being more exuberant in his hatred.

She fingered the holes in her dress - the distinctive shape shurikan left painfully evident - and replied an affirmative in a detached voice as they began to run through the grass.

"Yeah, the assholes."

She tried not to think about that one Leaf ANBU for a long time after that as they ran through the plains and forests of Kusa to get to the base.

* * *

So, yeah, another multi-chapter fic. I'm a stupid, masochistic glutton for punishment. I'm thinking a three-chapter or so. Long fics and me don't go together well. I realise this is extremely AU and there's probably lots of people that are scratching their heads and wondering what I've been smoking... I feel obliged to tell you that I'm just high _on life._ Honest.

Oh, and sorry for my OC Tatsuo's rampant homophobia/racism/xenophobia/misogyny/etc - his views don't represent my own. He got some issues, dudes.

Hope you enjoyed!

~ Silver.


	2. Chapter 2

**Between a Rock and a Hard Place.**

* * *

...

A rustle.

A flash of red above him somewhere... then a pair of green, green eyes.

There was little more that Kakashi could do now other than groan. Sharingan exhaustion, coupled with the regular kind, and augmented with a sucking chest wound made for a battering combination. Fluttering between consciousness and unconsciousness, he could hear the air hiss through the wound in his chest - constantly feeling winded because of what was sure to be a collapsed lung.

"I owed you one," muttered the bell-like voice above him, stressing syllables in a way a Leaf would not.

Kakashi felt his fingers twitch as he tried to reach for a kunai - reduced to groping for where he had remembered dropping it as his eyesight dimmed to blurred shapes in the wake of extreme Sharingan overuse. The crisp, bitter odour of crushed grass reached his sensitive nostrils - heightened with the deprivation of one other sense - along with the musky sweat and the bitter tang of blood.

A hand touched his face lightly, the silver chime of a female voice sounding again, and Kakashi practically hissed at his own helplessness - teeth gritting behind his mask, tendons on his neck standing in sharp relief, and every muscle tensed in a way that made a spasm of pain wash over his body a moment later. To die lying amongst the fluttering grass of Kusa like a helpless infant wasn't exactly what he had had in mind. A heroic death, maybe. One for the sake of Konoha, definitely. One that involved an avalanche of voluptuous women, in his dreams.

When he managed to open his eyes and make out the blurred image of a heart-shaped face with spectacular spring colouring - vibrant pink hair and green eyes that matched the swaying grass at the edges of his vision. The unmistakeable deadly sheen of a kunai in her delicate hand and the soft chinking noise of her armour moving with her. _I owed you one._ He wondered who of hers he had killed, but as the darkness began to creep over his sight Kakashi dropped that line of thought.

Mission complete, teammates escaping from the area, and a pink haired valkyrie to see him off.

Maybe not such a bad way to go after all.

...

The blurred shape of a hand poised above his face.

A soft exhalation of anticipation.

In a heartbeat, Kakashi grabbed the hand, dragged himself into a sitting pfosition despite the burning pain in his lungs, and slammed the smaller body down before moving to grab fruitlessly try to find a kunai. It took a second for his eyesight to catch up with his body - vision returning just in time to see an armoured fist making contact with his jaw with enough force to crack the bone.

"I'm _healing_ you, you brain dead Leaf!" snarled the Iwa girl glaring at him from where she was sprawled on the ground.

The feeling of foreign, definitely healing chakra in the vicinity of his torso confirmed her statement enough for him to let go of her delicate wrist. She massaged it lightly - still staring at him intently with the greenest eyes he had ever seen. Her furious expression was one of the most downright attractive things he had seen in a while.

"Hmm, there are no injuries on my face that I knew of," Kakashi said, mildly, knowing that she wouldn't be able to identify his teasing expression.

Just as she had predicted, she blushed a deep scarlet that matched her armoured dress, before looking away hautily,"I thought that mask might be restricting your breathing."

"Sure, Iwa-chan."

She looked at him strangely when he said that - all signs of anger evaporated like a puddle of water on a hot day. The change was so instantaneous he was almost surprised. For a shinobi, it was far too easy to read her emotions. She shook her head slightly before speaking in that voice that he didn't think he would ever forget - like light and sweet like wind chimes in a summer breeze.

"You probably don't even remember me," she said, a wry smirk forming," but I remember you – mostly because of this hair."

Putting her hand in the thick silver locks, she tugged gently. Some part of him, the shinobi part, raised its hackles at her touch – expecting attack, but she had been the one to save him, and it wasn't like he had the bodily strength or chakra at the moment to fend her off. He knew she was leaving out his reputation, the fact that he was probably plastered all over the Iwa most wanted section, but didn't call her bluff. She was probably ignoring that fact to lessen the guilt of helping an enemy.

"Hey, be gentle with me, honey," he groaned suggestively, causing her to release him as though she had been burned.

She grumbled what was probably a scandalous curse in one of the languages still indigenous to isolated areas of Iwa before adding, purely for his benefit it would seem, "Stupid Leaf."

In the light, with his vision returned to normal - normal enough, anyway - she looked very young. Younger than he might first have guessed. His fingers paused in mid air, hovering just inches above the smooth, lightly tanned skin of her exposed thigh. In his mind, he considered pinching, or squeezing, the soft feminine skin just to get a rise out of his pretty, little saviour. From what he had seen earlier she was quite a sight when angry. It had been some time since he had met a new young woman (or, really, since he had seen any woman other than that _viper_ Anko - he wasn't foolish enough to get entangled with that one for more than a night). But, one look at her sweet, devastatingly young face and he was miraculously thinking again.

"How old are you?"

She almost seemed surprised, petal coloured eyebrow raising in a way that was both quizzical and challenging, "Fifteen, does that matter?" The tone of her voice suggested that the consequences would be severe if he said it did.

"Just curious," he muttered, smiling cheekily up at her and retracting his hand as silently as he had moved it there.

Her delicate facial features and colouring was familiar to him, but for the life of him he could not place her. Surely remembering such a pretty girl with such strange hair would be not great challenge, but his mind chose that moment to fail him. She was rustling through her bags and setting out a series of pots that presumably held ointments. Adrenalin gone now that the 'threat' had been nullified Kakashi began to feel a burning ache across his torso and up his throat.

When he moved he felt the resistance of a sticky medical plaster that she had obviously put on him as a temporary battlefield solution to his sucking chest would. It meant that the puncture in his lungs was somewhat sealed, for the time being, and his lungs could fill to at least half of their capacity. She gestured for him to lie back with a single, dismissive hand gesture. Her dainty little fingernails were painted a fetching shade of apple green that reminded him of the ripe, fruit filled orchards on the West side of Konoha in late summer. It had been seven months since he had been back there for more than a week and the low, sloping trees would be heavy with fruit by now.

"Odd choice of colour for an Iwa girl." He said, gesturing to her hand, she flinched ever so slightly - almost imperceptibly, before he added, "but I like it."

"Well," she said, smiling, her sudden amusement like a beam of warm, golden sunlight, "at least somebody does."

Then, the shutters came down behind her previously sparkling eyes and he was met with cool, medic mode -"Since you're awake... Shirt off, please."

It took more effort than Kakashi would ever let on to pull his shirt over his head in an effortless manner and lie back with his legs parted and bent in a way that could almost, almost be constituted as a welcoming gesture. Though she was probably too young to get that, he still noted the faint rose blush that spread across her cheeks when she looked up at him.

Very defined. Sakura tried not to stare at the curling tattoo on his bicep that she knew was a mark of ANBU, or at his sleek, muscular chest - marred only by the odd streak of scar tissue, a few bruises and her bandaging. He flexed suddenly and to her utter mortification she realised she had both blushed furiously and flinched back - like some kind of skittish schoolgirl. Letting him bleed out instantly became a more appealing option than using up most of her left-over chakra reserves to patch him up.

"Stop that," she hissed, when he did it again as she hovered her small hands over his wound, preparing to rip the bandage on.

Her only reply was an eye-crinkle that she assumed meant he was smiling at her. Somehow he managed to look supremely smug with about only a fifth of his face visible. "You obviously liked it."

Sadistically, she took a certain amount of pleasure in the muscle that jumped in his jaw when she ripped the bandage from his skin with a satisfying noise. She quickly smeared some of the special healing paste she had for such an occasion and, with a little bit of difficulty - like persuading a slightly rusty piece of machinery to start - her hands began to glow with the pale green of healing chakra. Tatsuo used to always complained about the colour whenever she had to heal him - _couldn't you do Iwa red, bitch?_

Secretly, she quite liked the colour green. Glancing down at her pale hands on his torso, with their painstakingly painted fingernails, she frowned slightly - or maybe not so secretly. She moved her hands carefully over his skin - only brushing against it feather-light. This took all of her concentration, but after a few minutes of feeling sweat trickling down the line of her spine he was healed enough for her to sit back on her heels and breathe a sigh of relief.

"Mm, done, I think. How does it feel?" She tried not to let the nerves show in her voice. She had never healed anyone outside of her team before.

"Feels as good as new to me," he said, nonchalantly," you're not a half bad medic."

_For an Iwa - _was left unspoken between them. They were renowned as fighters that did not back down, and had a bit of an infamous reputation for having the worst, most underfunded, medical facilities in all of the major countries.

"I'm not as good as I'd like to be," she said, before grudgingly adding, "there's not much in the way of medical training, or facilities, in Iwa."

"Aa, I know," he closed his one visible eye.

"I'd like to check your breathing and heart rate," she said, smoothing down the scales that made up her armour. It wouldn't do to be anything less than thorough.

He only nodded - cool and irritatingly collected as possible. Sakura held her breath so long that she was sure she was turning purple when she finally brought herself to shuffle over and lay her head against his chest - half of her face pressed against the wall of muscle and smooth skin that masqueraded as his chest. She was forced to close her eyes when her line of sight lead directly to a pale trail of silver hair leading beneath the waistband of his trousers that almost made her start hyperventilating.

She must have lingered a little too long because suddenly he was speaking, the rumble from his chest tickling her skin," When a person is alive their heart usually beats."

"Thanks for the life-lesson, Kakashi-_sensei,"_ she spat, jerking back, "And you seem fine."

The long, hard, predatory look he sent her when she attached the honorific to his name made a completely and totally unrelated shiver crawl down her spine and settle in scalding fingers of warmth in her stomach.

It wasn't until later that she understood. When he had drifted into a restless sleep beside the fire she had set up and she was left to keep watch Sakura noticed a vivid, orange book poking out of his pouch. Curiosity got the better of her so she crept over and slid the book out, while trying to touch it as little as possible in case he could smell her scent on it later. Glancing at the cover, she frowned slightly.

_Icha Icha Sensei?_

This must be a Leaf thing - she had never heard of it. Gingerly, she held the corners of the book and flipped it open to a random page. One that so happened to have the most vivid picture of two people entwined she had ever seen, plus a beyond lewd

description. Sakura blushed so hard she was quite sure that her organs would have shrivelled up from the lack of blood flow getting to them.

She half-flung the book into his pouch as though it had mortally offended her (And, really, _it had_) before shuffling over to the complete opposite side of cave as quickly as was humanly possible.

So, her saviour that she had near idolised for years turned out to be a very perverted _old_ man... who happened to be attractive. That thought made her splutter as soon as it reared its head.

Obviously he was rubbing off on her.

...

Hours later, they were still in the cave and night had fallen. The rivers of Kusa in this area would have swollen to a treacherous size by now - the marshes becoming deadly for all but the most familiar - meaning that it was safe for them both to sleep as no one in their right mind would be moving about anymore.

Glancing at the stone ground, with its very light covering of loose dirt and small stones, Sakura felt her shoulders sag slightly. Though, it wasn't like she had done this plenty of times before. Her thoughts turned wistfully back to her full, cushy bedroll, and then to the image of it lying in a puddle of mud slashed beyond repair where she had left it a few days ago. She crouched down to brush away some of the debris from where she would be sleeping - back to the fire, and - the newly anointed pervert - Kakashi.

She glanced over her shoulder to see him propped up against the opposite wall with his eye closed, but a deep, innate, woman's awareness told her he had been staring intently at her rear seconds before. Huffing slightly, annoyed but secretly a little pleased, Sakura lowered herself onto the ground and curled up. Almost instantly the chill of the ground crept through to her skin, despite the heat of the fire behind her, something was digging into her head and thigh, and every ridge of her armoured tunic was pressing uncomfortably into her side.

"Are you planning to sleep like that?" Kakashi said, from the other side of the cave.

Sakura made a - distinctly irritated - affirmative and mentally dared him to make a lewd comment. He said nothing, much to her surprise.

It was probably a combination of bone-weariness, an uncomfortable position and a lack of chakra from the earlier healing that made one of her usual recurring nightmares flare up like an old injury. It wasn't so much a nightmare as it was a memory, but it held the qualities of both. Later, she would be glad that she didn't scream, or cry out in the night. Or, if she did... Sakura was grateful that the silver-haired nin didn't mention it.

Closing her eyes, she slid unwillingly into the womb-like blackness of slumber before that old dream started up again. His voice always came before any sight.

...

_"Dirty Kusa - who needs 'em anyway."_

_The heavily accented male voice could barely be heard before the wind snatched it away. High on a mountain ledge, concealed with genjutsu, two young shinobi sat sill - stiff and bored on their sentry duty. The young man was smoking - nonchalantly ignoring the clouds that billowed back in his face faster than he could exhale him. Had it not been for the genjutsu, the pink-haired girl would have been seen for miles around with the beacon that was her hair._

_"Hmm, I don't know, Tatsuo-kun... Maybe because of the prime tactical location and rich natural resources," she said, shuffling closer to him discreetly to be heard better, "besides this part hasn't defected yet."_

_"They're all filthy, Sakura, and you know it."_

_"Even Kazu?" she said, quietly, in the deadly sweet voice that had become a prelude to violence of late._

_He just snorted and took another drag on his cigarette. She knew that meant Tatsuo missed their teammate more than he would ever let on. It wasn't like it mattered anyway. Sakura turned to watch the teams of Leaf arriving to fortify their newly won area of land just over the river. They were just dots on the horizon - shadowed by trees, and as insignificant as ants in comparison to the landscape and from the perspective she was at. Drawing up her knees against the chill wind, she looked at him._

_"Don't do anything stupid," Sakura muttered, into her knees._

_"Don't get your panties in a twist," he replied, flicking the cigarette over the edge where it tumbled down out of sight, "I won't."_

_Sakura would later look back on that statement with a scalding mixture of regret and scorn._

_..._

_Tatsuo looked frantic - waving his arms, lit torch bobbing with the movements and leaving coloured streaks flickering across her eyes. The darkness was not enough to conceal the look of fury and defiance on his fire-lit features._

_"We can't give up this ground!" he bellowed._

_Sakura put one hand on her hip and waved her own fiery torch at him._

_"Come on! This area _..._has defected to Konoha, and we have to leave it! It isn't safe anymore, and we have orders!" she hissed. _

_"I'll die for this, Sakura!" - he pointed to the Iwa sign on his headband. _

_"This isn't Iwa, you idiot!" she spat back._

_His eyes reflected the fire he held in his hands, but it was just that - a reflection - but despite his outburst none of the flames of fanaticism burned in those dark orbs anymore. Sakura felt a chill, a warning bell deeper than the five senses ringing in her head. He looked up at her and his eyes held her whole._

_"If we burn the village Konoha will have nothing to use. There are no resources around here! If they stay they would die!"_

_Despite the heat of the torch in her hand, Sakura felt chilled to her very bone marrow. "But, the people..._

_"It's a sacrifice worthy of Iwa," he replied, mind obviously made up._

_Sakura had never been one to let the civilian cost of the war lie easily on her conscience. Tired, beaten, angry, and going into the black tunnel of battle-fatigue - the pure primal instinct to protect her people won over the logical one that said she should remain with the person that was all that was left of her team. She killed him when he set one of the little houses alight later in the night - the screams of one of the children inside driving her to wrap her hands around his windpipe and squeeze until her hands locked in that position even after she had let him go._

_His bulging eyes with their burst blood vessels - like tiny red streams seen from high above - and the almost comical size of them as they swelled out of his eye sockets like overinflated balloons were a regular feature of her nightmares. That, and the wet, rasping wheeze of his last breath._

_A worthy sacrifice? - she didn't know._

_..._

When she woke up in the morning, Sakura knew without looking that she had bruises on the side of her knee, her hip and her shoulder from the hard ground beneath her. She was still sweating from the aftermath of the dream and spent the next few moments with her eyes tightly squeezed shut, breathing heavily through her nose. The next thing she noticed when she managed to loosen the coil of dread and tension in her muscles was the warm, weight that was draped over her torso, and the lumpy, soft object that was now cushioning her head from the floor. Groggily, she opened her eyes to see the muted green of the Konoha flak jacket that was now providing some measure of warmth.

Propping herself up, she looked down at the bandages, that were probably used to secure his shurikan holder, rolled into a loose ball that had supported her head. Frowning down at it, she looked back over at the supposedly _recovering_ man lying not that far from her. Some part of her was pleased, flattered, by his display of thoughtfulness, but in the other very loud warning bells that reminded her of the ones that sounded in Iwa every time a fire broke out were sounding.

Sakura folded his things up neatly beside him and went out to find fresh water with her mind still buzzing. The only conclusion she could come to was that it would not do to let her guard down like that again.

He was, after all, a Leaf. An enemy. And it shook her to the core - sending tiny, rippling tremors, like the aftershocks of a vicious earthquake, throughout her mind - that she had to remind herself of that fact.

When she returned he was still asleep - only lightly - despite recovering from serious chakra depletion, a bad wound and exhaustion she was fairly sure he would be up like a shot the moment she made any unnecessary noise. Her debt, the one that had lain in her back mind surfacing from time to time like a buoy bobbing up and down on a turbulent ocean, was finally repaid.

Walking out into the fresh, still dark, morning, Sakura tried to reassure herself that she didn't feel slightly upset about the fact that she would never see him again.

Or so she thought.

* * *

Second chapter! Man, I really need to sleep now. So. very. tired.

Thanks of reading,

Silver ~


	3. Chapter 3

**Between a Rock and a Hard Place**

* * *

...

A rustle.

A flash of red flames streaking across the dark sky like a smear of vivid blood.

Screams fluttered through the air, carried by the crisp breeze that signalled the approaching winter. Sakura stayed crouched by a large group of boulders, watching the flickering fires, flashes of chakra and blurred movements below with sharp green eyes. She blinked slightly as another wave of ash and smoke stung and burned any exposed skin. Konoha were being stubborn as usual - going for more of their territory at any given opportunity.

Her small fist tightened around the kunai just as another explosion rocked the area, setting her teeth on edge. She saw the signal for one of their groups - a blue flash of chakra streaking up into the sky with a shriek like a banshee. Her captain - whose name she had never learned, having only met him that very afternoon - tensed beside her.

The first group launched themselves down towards the battle, excited and bloodthirsty. They were barely even bothering to conceal themselves and that thought made her frown slightly. Most seasoned veterans had been killed off in the wars, so that group were mainly made up of eager rookies - that was hardly an excuse though. Her muscles tensed slightly as she waited for her group to be given the signal.

It happened. A yellow flash this time - one that made her jump a little despite the fact that she knew it was coming. The old stories about Konoha's Yellow Flash had practically forced a wariness about the colour into all shinobi of Iwa. Just as she moved to leap to her feet her commander caught her arm lightly. The others - all men between fifteen and twenty five were not moving either - they just crouched and watched. Alarm bells began to ring insistently in her head over the din around them.

"It is time to remove ourselves from Iwa. We have decided it is best if our county becomes independent, "his voice was deep and soothing - coloured with a steel back confidence that marked a leader of men. The others watched like starved wolves - breathing quick and excited, teeth bared. "Come, let us together rid the world of the taint that Iwa and Konoha."

"What?" She hissed, drawing back until the boulder behind her prevented any further movement.

There had always been a lot of political unrest in Iwa, but Sakura had never thought she would be part of a coup. Tatsuo would be rolling in his grave. The thought of her former teammate made a pang of remorse along with a burning wave of anger flow through her system.

"Are you _Iwa_ or are you _Aragane_?" Her leader said, tone similar to the kind that would be used to explain things to a child.

And that was part of the problem - the people living in the separate areas of the Earth Country placed as much importance in their county loyalty as they did to their country as a whole. It was what had always caused a lot of the political strife. Usually, that had just meant an odd assassination... a county or two threatening to become independent. Not this. Her team leader seemed to have noticed her indecision because he stepped forward and tapped her forehead in a way that couldn't constitute as friendly.

"Take off your headband. We're going to go down there and finish this," he snapped, smooth courteousness vanishing from his voice.

They were all watching her - a sea of judgemental, black eyes. She didn't know any of them, really. Everyone she had known had either died or gone to Iwa. She felt her loyalties being pulled apart at the seams - neither option sounded particularly savoury any more, but _she would not allow them to take her headband._ This had been given to her by people she loved and respected, and it was for that reason she kept it.

"No."

That was the second, and last, Sakura fought and killed her own people. After that, they were no longer hers.

...

And so, Sakura found herself back in Kusagakure - a place where she had visited during childhood, and where she had spent much of her early career as a ninja.

Being there wasn't as much a conscious decision as it was an instinctive one. Iwa was off limits, and her home region was now merely her birthplace - that only left Kusa and a handful of civilian countries she had barely ever set foot in. Her mind didn't even consider places like Konoha and Suna - still taboo.

This was where her teammate Kazu had died - ground into the soft earth during the rainy season, back covered in senbon, arms outstretched, the deep trench his body had scored into the pliable soil serving as the shallow grave he had been left in. It almost looked like he had been crucified. That thought didn't affect her much now - not even when she stood by the small marker that was his grave stone. It was hastily erected, placed on the first piece of high ground they had come upon, but still possessed some kind of sombre dignity.

Sakura knew Kazu himself wouldn't have wanted to be left in Kusa; though it was his country of birth he had hated it, had wanted to be so badly to be Iwa it had eaten him up inside.

Loyalties are tricky things. When Kusa had defected to Konoha it had torn Kazu up a little inside, and the first battle they had after that with Konoha - outnumbered twenty elites to just two small teams - he had thrown himself into it without any intention of coming back out. A hero, in his mind - someone defending a just cause. She supposed he hadn't stopped to consider that they might not be able to get his body. That he might lie rotting in the marshes he so hated.

Her fingers traced the letters of his name thoughtfully - cleaning out the moss that had began to gather in the dips. Ono Kazuhiko - roughly translated his surname meant "small field" and his first "peaceful boy". A terrible name for a ninja, really. Then again, her own name was also a little too _pastoral_ for a ninja. Kazu was such a sweet boy normally - prone to fits of rage he couldn't quite control on rare occasions - and he had taught everything she knew about herbs, plants and poisons.

"All alone, Iwa-chan?" A voice cut through her thoughts, making her fingers still against the headstone.

She saw him standing on the edge of her peripheral vision only because he allowed her to. The volumous spikes of silver hair triggered her memory instantly. Letting out a gentle sigh, she tried to coax herself into relaxing: she had shed her armour, headband wasn't visible and she was alone. They weren't mortal enemies anymore... in theory. Her fingers lightly brushed the cool steel of a kunai.

"Iwa-chan isn't exactly appropriate any more. Sakura..." she paused, turning slightly to meet his gaze, "would be fine."

She carefully avoided stating that she was alone - completely and utterly. Though she trusted him, strangely, intuitively, at a level that was sometimes disconcerting, he was still a shinobi - still a threat.

He crinkled his visible eye in a way that she remembered was supposed to show he was smiling underneath that mask. Straightening, she brushed her hand fondly across the gravestone, before turning to look at him properly. Strangely, the space between them was not as tense as she might have expected, but he still kept a respectful distance away from her. Sakura wondered if one of the hands shoved in his pockets was holding a weapon, as she was.

Smiling, perhaps a little tightly, she drew her hands from the baggy pockets of the rusty red coloured skirt she now wore in a show of trust. Her fingers itched for a weapon - the longing crawling from the tips to the palms, along with the ghostly feeling of weighty metal that was easily imagined.

"So, what brings you here -"

"Hatake Kakashi," he interjected, moving a little closer to smoothly that she might not have noticed had her attention not been so solely focused on him.

She knew his name. Knew it from their last meeting. Knew it from the many bingo books she had flipped through in her lifetime. She didn't say anything about their last meeting, or his notoriety.

"Missions. Ensuring Kusa stays with Konoha," he said casually, moving closer again in a way that began to make her nervous.

The way he looked at her suggested that he was testing the air between them - the still waters just waiting to be disrupted. Sakura knew he was fishing for exactly where her loyalty lay - prodding around for any hint of Iwa allegiance.

"Been here long?" Sakura was relatively proud her voice didn't waver.

Tension began to stretch thin in the space between them that was slowly shrinking. Sakura knew if she took even one step back it would be a show of weakness. She didn't want this man in particular to think that she was weak.

"No. Not very. I was waiting for my team to arrive and decided to scope the area."

At the time Sakura didn't know how stunningly rare it was for him to be early to a meeting of any sort. Instead her mind focused on the implied fact that he was alone - she wondered if it was a ploy to make her subconsciouslessly less alert to an ambush. She brushed her fingers across the rough stone beside her as she tried to think of what to do. For a moment her eyes drifted to Kakashi and saw the pale flexing muscles of his torso in her mind's eye before she could squash the image.

Kakashi stepped forward until he was alarmingly near, seemingly unaware of her lewd thoughts and the bright blush that had blossomed across her cheeks like the poppies that grew plentifully in Kusa.

"And who is this?" He put his hand on the tombstone in a friendly clap - like he had just put his hand on another man's shoulder.

Sakura noticed their proximity even more when she realised she could feel his body heat lightly intruding her personal space and felt far too aware of it. Without her armour, as familiar as a second skin, she felt quite vulnerable standing beside him, dwarfed by his far larger stature.

"Kazu. My old teammate," her eyes flickered fondly to the marker as though it was actually him standing there.

Kakashi turned his attention fully to the stone - eye flickering as though he was reading the sparse inscription. He probably knew what it felt like to stand at the grave of a loved one - both sides had lost enough people that everyone knew someone who had perished in the war.

In the main city of Iwa there was a graveyard that held solely the dead of this war - not the previous two. She had stood inside it once - that forest of white marble tombstones that jutted out of the earth like teeth. Shinobi, all of them, in regimented lines even in death. At the side, cupping the graveyard like a pair of hands were walls that held yet more names.

She imagined Konoha had something similar.

"Nice to meet you," he addressed the stone, "hope you don't mind me stealing the attention of the young lady here."

There was little she could say to that - torn between hastily leaving and staying Sakura stayed stock still. For them to keep meeting like this was strange, to say the least. She wasn't much of a believer in anything like fate, but this... As though sensing her thoughts Kakashi broke the silence.

"And this will be what... our third accidental meeting." Her heart jumped a little - she hadn't thought he had remembered the first time. "I'm beginning to think you might be stalking me."

Sakura laughed suddenly - a deep full bellied laugh that rang across the surrounding area in a joyful peal. It wasn't even that funny, but she found herself unable to stop laughing - tears forming at the corners of her mouth, lungs aching, chest heaving. As though some kind of coil that had been wound tighter and tighter inside her had finally snapped. As a social creature, she knew she shouldn't have gone for this long without friendly human contact. Through her tears of laughter Kakashi looked strangely old - the ageless aura that surrounded him briefly lifted.

"You wish," she said, still smiling, when she finally managed to catch her breath.

He smiled with the slightest hint of wariness - a watchfulness that told her she hadn't just thought she might have appeared a little unbalanced, he had thought so too. Battle fatigue could show in a number of ways; blind apathy, crippling paranoia, detachment from everything... Laughing and laughing until you can't stop - she had seen that happen to someone. His teammate had been shredded by some foreign jutsu and all that had been left was a thick red mist of blood and vaporised flesh. He had just laughed and laughed and laughed until it seemed like he was cracking to pieces like china thrown in a blaze - blackened pieces crumbling before your very eyes. They had to kill him and his jaw was still moving even after they had cut off the head.

But, that was long ago.

Sakura brought herself back to the here and now by watching his smile and the reassuring creases around his eye. The soft spider web smile lines around his visible eye were slightly deeper than she remembered - his shoulders perhaps a smidge broader - but little else had changed. To her, he remained a timeless image that occasionally showed in the blackness of dreams - a familiar face as slippery and untouchable as those of her long dead relatives, the children she had played with as a child, her first teacher. It flowed to the surface of her mind like water unexpectedly and sunk back down just as quickly - trickling through her fingers no matter how hard she tried to grasp it.

She wanted so badly to touch the arm so close to her, and feel the warmth soaking through the fabric into her fingertips, but she crushed that urge just as it appeared.

"We're going through the marshes," Kakashi stated abruptly, with the same nonchalance he treated everything.

Sakura didn't even bother to stifle the surprised gasp that bubbled from her throat.

"I hope you have a guide", she ground out, glaring at the silver haired shinobi, "or you'll die in these marshes."

Reflexively, she turned to look at the vast, flat expense that stretched out behind them as far as the eye could see. A light fog hung over certain areas despite the bright warm sun that shone overhead in a way that made the entire space look vaguely malevolent. Kakashi looked out at them as well - breathing in the warm, close vaguely salty smell that rolled from them with the breeze looking supremely unruffled. She could tell immediately that he didn't have a guide, and that thought made her grind her teeth together.

"They don't look so bad," he said, hands casually stuffed into his pockets - as though he didn't think he would need to defend himself against her.

"Huh, just wait until night falls and the mist and tides rise. Can't see a hand in front of your face," she waved a delicate hand in front of her own for emphasis," and I suppose you know all about the sucking whirlpools, noxious fog areas and poisonous marsh snakes?"

He blinked slowly, benignly, and looked at her calmly, "And you do?"

"I have antidotes for every poison in the area - I made them myself - and I know the best routes to take to avoid danger," Sakura said, maybe a little smugly - the undertone of righteous anger still in her voice.

Kazu had taught her. She was sure she knew almost every plant in these marshes - and had a guidebook painstakingly handwritten and illustrated by Kazu should she ever come across a plant, or toxin effects, she didn't recognise. The best routes to take were mapped in her mind along with the locations of the few small villages dotted within the watery death-trap and the best edible plants and animals and how to treat them.

The thought of Kakashi dying - sucked up by the remorseless marshes - laid heavily on her thoughts. She remembered the day she had come across him in one of the grassy plains of Kusa - half dead and alone. She had been on a messenger mission - communication between two of their camps - and she knew she shouldn't have stopped when she heard the light groan of a wounded man.

And then she had seen his hair - thick and gleaming like thousands of silver wires - lying amongst the green grass.

An eye for an eye was a concept that was heavily embedded in her moral system and Sakura just couldn't ignore the fact that this was the same man who had spared her life. She had crept over to him - creeping among the swaying grass like a feline - and had seen that he really was too wounded to move: large gash across his torso, fine spray of bloody air that hung slightly before being swept away by the breeze in the same instant signalling a sucking chest sound.

Then, he had opened that deep black eye and looked at her without really seeing her, but still managing to pin her in place.

That was the moment when she decided to pay her debt, and even now - no debt to justify herself - she didn't want him to die. This attachment frightened her somewhat - as someone who had been able to kill her own _teammate,_ for Kami's sake, a stranger should have no emotional hold whatsoever.

"For fuck's sake - _I'd _be your guide rather than allowing you to blunder in there by yourself!" She growled, placing her hands firmly on her generous hips.

His single eye trailed over her in a way that made a slight tingling shiver sweep over her skin, though she endeavoured not so show it.

"Young girls shouldn't swear," Kakashi answered.

She glowered at him for that, "I'm not a little girl."

When he turned away and begun casually walking down the hill away from the marker and the vantage point Sakura felt compelled to follow. Anger bubbled up to the surface as she stalked after him - matching his easy gait with furious stomps.

"You were what? - thirteen the last time we met?" He said, digging himself into a deeper hole.

"Fifteen," she corrected - teeth gritted - before adding, "I'm eighteen now."

That made Kakashi pause on his descent and throw another long smouldering look over his shoulder in a way that cast the image in Icha Icha Sensei vividly to the front of her mind - a blush crawling up her cheeks.

"You never said how old you were," she called after him (to distract herself from the feeling that her legs had turned to jelly) as he began to stroll off down the grassy hill - up to his knees in the ocean of green.

"_Old."_

...

She followed him down a winding path that lead from the bottom of the hill back to where he had set up camp - the ashy remains of a fire being testament to that - bickering all the way and trying to ignore the monstrously sized butterflies that were beating against her ribcage as though to break it. The fact that part of her mind still deemed him an _enemy_ had her feeling a little more guilty about speaking to him than she might have been otherwise.

They were in one of the vaguely mountainous areas of Kusa that quickly sloped into the soupy thickness of the marshes. Most would skirt these - taking a two week detour that skimmed the edges of Kusa - to reach destinations on the other side. In a way the entire country was like a bowl - mountainous rim that gave way to deep, thick treacherous wetlands. Only fools and experienced natives waded through the marshes to the few villages dotted within them, even if it could cut the journey to the other side of Kusa in half or even quartered it - it just wasn't worth the risk.

"Despite your protests you haven't left yet," Kakashi said, idly running his hands through his thick hair as he slid to sit at the base of a rock.

Sakura let out an irritated grunt," I didn't put that much energy into healing you to let you die now because of your foolishness."

She sat on the ground, folding her legs neatly, a measured distance away from him. "Besides, it's not like I have anywhere else to be."

The long searching look he gave her then - far more unsettling than the teasing gazes he had used on her earlier - made her feel overly exposed. She really hoped that placing even this small measure of trust in him wouldn't prove to be a bad decision.

"So you did defect," he commented, finally.

"I stayed for the people, not the place. Then they were gone... and I didn't have any more reasons," Sakura said, quietly.

She pulled up her knees against her chest as though that would work as an emotional barrier against him - icy fingers of sadness and irritation clutching at her chest. Sakura hadn't meant to tell him that much, she hadn't meant to tell him anything. He closed his eye and leant back against the mossy stone - allowing her to relax a little.

"I know what you mean." Kakashi said, the slightest hint of a bitter smile showing on his masked face before he added, "Will you stay?"

Sakura paused, some part of her feeling warm for the fact that he had asked - that she was wanted. She gave an easy shrug that hid her feelings, "As I said, I have nowhere else to be. This... will pass the time."

His shoulders lowered a fraction as though a weight had been lifted from his shoulders: maybe he really had known the dangers of the marsh. That drove Sakura to continue with, "But if I _am _staying, I sure as hell am not going to sleep out here when night falls. I'm sure the mist soaked you to the skin."

The vaguely irritated look on his face told her she had been right on the mark, and that thought made her smile as she stood.

Sakura pulled one her gloves off in a rapid movement before placing her palms flat against the cool, wet rock that surrounded half of his small camp. She studiously ignored the single eye focused on her with all the intensity of a laser beam. Satisfied that it was a suitable site for what she planned, Sakura stepped back, moved quickly through a well practised set of hand signs, and tried not to wince at the inevitable, _deafening_, noise.

After a few moments, a newly formed cave with an entrance about as wide and tall as an average sized man was present in the previously featureless rock. She would have to put a genjutsu over that soon, Sakura reminded herself. After a short, brittle silence, she turned to regard her companion. If she was right he looked mildly impressed - though it was difficult to tell.

"What? Were you planning to sleep out in the rain, mist and fog?" she said, in a vaguely pitying voice.

Her only reply was a mask-muffled mumble.

Somehow, this could work.

...

...

* * *

Now I don't know if the areas of the Earth Country have been named, and I don't really care either. :P For the purposes of this AU, Sakura is from a border county, next to Kusa, called Aragane - which means ore in Japanese if the online dictionary thing is right. I suppose it's a wealthy area - a lot of raw materials in the form of, you guessed it, ore... This would mean that it would be a place of especially vicious fights for territory. Being on the very outskirts of the country definitely wouldn't help either.

And the graveyard is based on one some of the World War 1/2 ones I visited when I was in Belgium and France . There are so many graves and so many names on those walls that it's difficult to grasp the sheer scale of the number of fallen soldiers. Imagine a football field fall of graves - with so many that walls around the edges had to be erected to write more names of the fallen. Another one I visited you had to pass through a small room to get to the main site - this room was covered, walls and ceiling, with the names of dead soldiers. I'm not easily affected by things, but that was one hell of a poignant experience, I can tell you. The graves that just say "Unknown" are the most absolutely heart-wrenching things imaginable.

~ Silver


	4. Chapter 4

**Between a Rock and a Hard Place**

* * *

...

A rustle.

A flash of red as she carelessly sliced her finger open with one of her tools. A scarlet droplet of blood beaded on the surface within seconds and she carelessly sucked it off, ignoring the slightly coppery taste in her mouth followed by the distinctive bitter musk of clay. Grimacing slightly, she continued to knead the soft crumbling ore with both hands, waiting for the fire to heat to the temperature she needed it to be.

Kakashi sat propped at the other side of the cave engrossed in that _horrible _orange book she remembered all too well from last time - every so often she felt the heated flicker of his eyes passing across her. It was obvious there was little trust between them - the fragile truce liable to be shattered at any moment. Sakura deemed the fire to be hot enough, the temperature in her little, crudely and quickly made kiln sufficient.

She combined the ore and the charcoal and spent much of the rest of the afternoon extracting the metal. It was a kind not commonly found outside of Iwa and Kusa, and appeared more like a ceramic at first glance - lightweight with a matte appearance, but it was as strong and hard as any other metal and conducted electricity. Sakura fervently wished she hadn't dumped her armour in the marsh in a sign of defiance, she truly did.

Now, with nothing else to do but wait for Kakashi's team to arrive, she had decided to make a replacement. Pouring the molten liquid into one of her casts, she sat back on her heels and waited. Most Iwa Nin had basic metal forging skills and she was no exception. After two near full days of working, she had amassed enough metal scales to make a full, sleeved tunic and binding them together was a small matter.

Now there was just the matter of colour - the dull beige of the untreated metal was completely unappealing.

"I was thinking dark green this time," she said to no one in particular.

Kakashi shrugged in a way that was almost sarcastic, although she couldn't quite tell why, "I thought the red suited you."

That made a warm feeling swell in her chest like a balloon that really should not have been there. She resisted the urge to smile like an idiot and when it became too hard to fight Sakura ducked her head and drowned out her feelings with a few solid strikes of a hammer against the links of the tunic. She painstakingly ground herbs and roots gathered for colour and added a sprinkling of the red clay in the area to bring out a brighter, cherry red colour - less sombre than the last shade she had worn.

The final touch was to paint two bone white circles - one on each shoulder.

Kakashi had watched each stage with something approaching mild interest. She had tried to hide what she was doing; given that he was an _outsider_, a _Leaf_, and she really shouldn't let him see these age old processes in action. But, hours crawled passed and she found that she didn't mind the odd glance, the occasional passing, not at all probing question. Half of the time over the three days he was gone; out training, out hunting, or just out.

And she didn't like it.

Distrust smouldered like banked coals in the back of her mind. Fear slithered through her thoughts at all times. She should not have been so quick to attach herself to him, and as he approached her with two rabbits slung over his shoulder she felt her entire body tense as usual, her hand tighten around the paint brush.

"Why these?" he brushed his fingers across the now dry markings lightly, a feather's touch, leaning over her shoulder.

For some unknown reason she wanted to lean back - meet his body with hers and sink against him. Had he been Kazu, or Tatsuo - on a good day - or almost anyone else other than a Leaf she might have. Instead she concentrated on filing the edges of the scales into deadly sharpness.

Apparently Leaf shinobi were far more forward with their questions that any Iwa she knew would have been. Sakura paused, considering whether to ignore him or not, before batting his hand away lightly. "That's the sign of my family, and it's considered rude to touch someone else's marking without asking, you know."

By family she meant team, but she let him think whatever he liked.

"No, I didn't know," he straightened, looming over her, but now at a more comfortable distance.

"You do now."

Silence stretched between them, but he seemed to be considering something intently.

"My team will be here soon."

The prickly, hot feeling of an imminent ambush crawled down her spine before she could stifle it. The urge to bolt stormed through her limbs like a wildfire - heated and burning. Her legs twitched where they were spread on the cave floor. She had known all along they were coming and surely couldn't have expected this strange, almost domestic, peace between them to hold for long.

Letting out a shuddering breath, Sakura straightened from where she was curled over her armour and casually stood. She felt his eyes on her as she stretched luxuriously - spine popping satisfyingly - and a spike of confidence shot through her.

"Then we had better get more food ready for them, yeah?"

...

Kakashi didn't notice her small slip - a testimony to her nerves. "Yeah". An inflection only added by those native to her area of birth - a speech quirk that she had worked hard to stamp out. Except in times of stress, she had managed quite well to rid herself of it. She felt the buzz - the slight pull - of chakra signals entering the area and tried to stop the hand working to skin one of the rabbits from shaking.

When she saw his single dark eye zero in on her, she knew that she had failed. Kakashi did the unexpected; he reached across and awkwardly patted her on the head like she was a child of twelve, rather than a young woman of eighteen but instead of feeling indignant his clumsy action and endearing half-smile made her fell almost safe.

"It'll be fine."

She nodded and found herself saying, "I know," and almost believing it.

There were four of them - all men - and internally her mind criticised both the size of the team and the lack of balance before they had even crossed the threshold of the cave. They were all clearly strong attack types with maybe a little espionage mixed in. No healer, no support - just pure testosterone - her nostrils flared in annoyance. She continued turning the spits with the glistening chunks of rabbit on them with a disinterested expression, despite the fact that she watched them closely from her peripheral vision.

Two dark haired, eyed and pale as alabaster - they could be related. One brown haired, eyed and with a slightly healthier tan and a strange headgear that set off a hair-trigger alarm in the back of her mind that she tried to quash. The last with hair the shade of sunshine, eyes blue as the sky and ridiculous whisker tattoos and an orange uniform - orange! He must be borrowed from another division - a frontline battle one judging from the colour he wore.

She half considered standing to greet them, but then decided against it.

The men exchanged greetings - not at all like she might have expected; all smiles and claps on the back and shoulder rather than the bared teeth and wrestling she had expected. Feeling out of place in the deluge of Leaf-accented voices, she continued prodding at the food with a mildly ill-tempered expression until Kakashi's voice interrupted her thoughts.

"And this is Sakura - she has volunteered to guide us."

Out of habit, she stood and gave a bow - body bending perpendicular at the waist. Her gesture was not reciprocated and she drew to her full height with a ferocious scowl. Apparently good manners were wasted on Leaf. Sakura was just about to return to cooking, when the blonde one stormed over with all the force of an oncoming storm - large, tanned hand extended.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto! Soon to be Hokage! Neh, pleased to meet you, Sakura... chan!"

Sakura was not sure what to do at this point, but hitting him seemed like a good option. Especially for using an insulting diminutive like 'chan' - as though she was a familiar! Kami he was loud, and - all of her thoughts froze stock still - he was hugging her. She barely recognised the earthy scent and strong sure arms and bellow of 'welcome to the team' before she bodily threw him off of her in a panic. Brandishing the cooked rabbit on a stick like a weapon, she tensed.

Instead of a fight, she received a smile.

He - this Naruto - looked a little petulant at the sudden movement, but the rest simply laughed or looked bored. Naruto eyed the food in her hands with barely concealed lust - blue eyes brimming with the delight rarely seen on anyone older than twelve. It was strangely disarming - she wondered vaguely if he was simple, touched in the head. But, then again, this exuberance might just be a Leaf thing.

Relaxing slightly, she moved towards the rest.

The stony expressions and haughty voice of the taller, spikier haired one was a welcome relief. Now _this_ was more familiar behaviour.

"Sai." and "Uchiha Sasuke."

"Yamato," said the brown haired one with a small, but still strangely warm smile and heavily lidded eyes - he was the only one to actually shake her hand; his grip was firm and steady. There was a bracelet around his wrist that looked like a twisted vine with small brown beads woven through it.

A memory hit her like a full-body slam, but she still managed to smile.

"I think I've seen you before, "she murmured. _You almost strangled my teammate._

He blinked, surprised, and Sakura had to force herself to drop his hand and not try to crush it to pathetic shards. All those years ago - the first time she met Kakashi - this was the one that had almost strangled Kazu with tree branches and vines.

"Really?" Yamato asked, incredulous.

Kakashi clapped a hand on his shoulder, having watched the interaction between them carefully. She knew - instinctively - that he had known about that battle and had been watching to see if she had remembered. His memory was probably near photographic.

"You remember, Yamato: Tatara Bridge - years ago. A sentry unit."

He pursed his lips and look thoughtful, but shook his head.

"That was the day I met Sakura - we had a little scuffle, but she was just too adorable to kill."

Sakura felt herself blush with mingled mortification and an emotion she didn't even want to acknowledge.

"You let her _go, _senpai?" Yamato sounded horrified - he was staring at Kakashi, aghast.

The silver haired man merely shrugged - looking supremely unbothered as usual.

"It's worked out fine. Now, let's eat before Naruto demolishes it all."

The blond haired man in question looked up with a sheepish grin, but was otherwise thoroughly unrepentant.

...

She was awake earlier than everyone else - just as the sun began to peek over the horizon. Sitting outside the light early morning mist, Sakura felt profoundly calm away from Naruto's rattling snores and the inevitable sweaty muskiness of six human bodies in a confined space. She sat with her legs crossed, carefully applying the final glossy coat to her new armour - the layer that would hopefully stop scratches and chips.

Kakashi followed her out shortly afterwards - hair even more wild and tousled and stupidly attractive than usual.

"I'm going to ask you something," he said, tone far more worryingly grave than she ever remembered hearing.

It made her stiffen and toss a suspicious look. He took a seat on the ground next to her - probably unaware that the way they were sitting (legs crossed, on the ground directly facing each other) was the one used specifically and only when discussing marriage. The irony and his ignorance made her want to smile.

"Don't make a hasty rejection until you hear the offer."

She was silent. He continued anyway, hands still deep in his pockets.

"Come back to Konoha with us."

Sakura threw the gloss at his head - just catching the tip of his silver locks as he dodged the projectiles. He would never get that out, she thought with some measure of savage satisfaction.

"I'd rather die!"

He shrugged, lifting both palms face up in a gesture so placid and natural she wants to grab him by his tousled hair and slam his head off the rocks around him. Instead, she sits and simmers in her irritation.

"Well, we have a few weeks to convince you that it's the best thing for you."

_We? _So more than one of them had decided this on their own.

"Who says I'm even going with you!" She spat back.

Even when she stands up, fists clenched furiously Kakashi is unmoved.

"You were quite insistent that we needed a guide."

Sakura walks away in a series of infuriated stomps and he makes no move to stop her even when she tosses a single statement laced with malice over her shoulder.

"You can drown in the marshes for all I care, Leaf, yeah!"

Just under an hour later she is back - sitting cross legged on a rock just smooth and flat enough to be a bearable seat with Kakashi seated in front of her. The rest are just beginning to stir as she runs her hands through his silver wire hair and carefully cuts out each of the pieces clumped together with gloss. He sits patiently beneath her, hair warmed by the sun and still relatively pleasing to touch despite his obvious neglect of it.

Even when she finishes cutting it looks the same - wild, unkempt and almost Byronic. If it weren't for the hair - and the attitude - she probably wouldn't have remembered him at all

...

It takes roughly three days to reach the first village in the marshes. Sakura cannot remember its name, but is not entirely sure it has one.

Naruto complained from the moment they left until they saw the first building.

The houses were tall and thin - balanced precariously atop bamboo poles with thin reed walkways joining the houses in a haphazard spider web balanced above the sludgy land beneath it. In the breeze it almost seemed like some of the dwellings were swaying drunkenly - probably because they were, the foundations beneath so unstable and ever shifting. The villagers spoke an easy mixture of the main language in the area peppered with a near dead language that had originated in Iwa, their own dialect and some odd words that had sprang seemingly from the marshy soil without explanation.

For Sakura it was vaguely comforting and familiar. For the others it was bewildering and deeply confusing. Smiling, she clasped her hands together and bowed deeply to the elderly man who was probably the Elder and his retainers who had approached to greet them - shooting a poisonous look over her shoulder that warned the others to do the same.

"_Gashi_! Welcome!" he boomed in a voice so deep it was almost subterranean," We _shinrai_ that your journey was _yoroshii_, pleasant."

Straightening, Sakura quickly returned the customary greeting - eager to move forward to the actual conversation, "_Gashi_! We are _gaibun_ to be in your _yoroshii_ and lovely village. We are planning to stay the night and stock up on supplies, if you _nanitozo, _Elder-san."

He bowed from the waist, despite the fact that it seemed to take an eternity to carry through the movement, and she returned the gesture. Straightening, he reached for her with both wizened hands and lightly kissed both of her cheeks as though she was a treasured grandchild rather than a traveller. Sakura had almost forgotten how friendly the people here had been.

"We welcome you with honoured open arms, _kodomo_."

"_Gashi!" _Kakashi said, clearly having been listening closely despite the way he stumbled over the word (trailing the _ga_ rather than the _shi_ and making the retainers titter with laughter at the sound of his foreignness),"It is we who are honoured, Elder-san."

Then he bowed properly, fluidly, as she had showed him and Sakura felt a measure of pride swell in her chest.

...

Pride which lasted until about sundown.

"What?" she demanded, "What's the matter?"

"You're in my bed, "he stated flatly, standing board stiff in the doorway.

"Yes," she looked at him as though he was talking nonsense, "and it's late. I'd like to sleep."

Sakura lifted the covers and looked pointedly at the space.

"Get in."

"Sakura-chan, although I find you appealing - in a purely platonic... platonic way - I think this is a step in our relationship that we should perhaps leave to a later date," he rubbed the back of his head nervously, dark eye avoiding her incredulous stare.

She threw a pillow at his head with enough force to bruise. "_What? _All I did was tell you to go to sleep. Not proposition you. Don't Leaf teammates share sleeping places?"

He blinked. Obviously not.

"Iwa do?"

Sakura wrinkled her nose in irritation - her arms beginning to get cold from having the covers folded back, "It builds trust and a sense of family in a unit. We sleep, we eat, we clean, we train and we fight together."

"You didn't sleep beside me the last time," he began cautiously, still standing paces away," in the cave. After you healed me. Any time before this."

Sakura rolled over pointedly - not particularly wanting to answer that query.

Finally she grudgingly answered when the silence stretched to an uncomfortable point, "You weren't on my side then."

She heard the slight rustle that indicated he was shedding the layers and layers of bandages he seemed to swathe himself in around his calves and forearms, then the faint dip of the mattress giving way to the weight of another body. Sakura felt some of the tension seep from her body - it felt better to sleep with another person beside her, safer.

That was one thing she hadn't quite got used to since leaving Iwa behind - sleeping alone. More than once she had woken in the night feeling exposed, agitated, unable to sleep because there were no presences around her. Her mind would not rest without knowing her teammates were beside her and intact - which was ridiculous given that they were without exception dead.

Still, she could feel his stiffness - the corpse-like way Kakashi held himself. "Relax." she mumbled.

He let out a soft chuckle, "Sorry, this is unusual for me."

"Pft," Sakura snorted, turning and getting a face full of sentient silver locks, "next thing you'll be telling me that it's weird for teammates to bathe together and boys and girls are given different types of training."

Kakashi made a semi-incredulous noise, "It is and they do."

Sakura frowned fiercely, wondering in the back of her mind why he didn't even take his mask off when he slept, "Then... who washes your back for you?" And... that's just plain sexist."

He laughed out loud this time - a full deep, husky laugh that was so infectious she found herself smiling although she tried to keep her frown in place.

"Communal sleeping area, communal eating areas, communal showering areas, training areas..." She ticked them off on her fingers, propped up on the pillows," Don't you have any of these?"

Shaking his head, Kakashi relaxed against the pillow - and began untying his headband. She had not given the fact that he kept one eye covered any notice until now. Injuries and lost limbs, eyes, were not uncommon amongst shinobi. She was not surprised by the scar that ran horizontally down the lid, but she _was _surprised by the fact that the eye concealed was the colour of a bloody full moon.

Sakura tried not to stare and quickly searched her mind for a topic of conversation.

"These men are all your usual team? - you seem familiar despite the fact that Naruto wears a uniform that suggests he belongs elsewhere."

Kakashi seemed profoundly unsettled by the fact that she was quite content to lie very close to him - almost touching - and Sakura had to repress the feline grin of amusement that threatened to erupt.

"He was one of my students, and is part of my team on a regular basis. Leaf teams are prone to change depending on the situation." He said, closing his eyes in a bid to ignore her proximity.

"In Iwa a team is never separated."

"Never?"

"Mostly whole teams die together - that's the way it should be. It's rare for just one to be left."

"You must miss them," he opened both eyes to look at her directly. Sakura found the mismatched gaze difficult to keep eye contact with - the red eye too searching and intense.

She shrugged.

"This war has taken from everyone, why should I be any different?"

He nodded solemnly, understanding.

That was the first night Sakura slept soundly in what felt like years.

...

* * *

I wanted to get across the sort of foreign-ness of the area they're in - it's pretty damn alien to Kakashi and his team - so I was shockingly lazy and just shoved in some random non-English words in places. Since the canon this stuff comes from was originally Japanese, I figured that made more sense than... say, Urdu. If anyone here can actually read Japanese, _oh god I'm so sorry; please don't come for my organs. _I used an online dictionary, so half of this is probably maimed beyond recognition. Oh well.

Thanks for reading,

Silver ~ x


	5. Chapter 5

**Between a Rock and a Hard Place**

* * *

...

A rustle.

A flash of red somewhere in the distance; almost swallowed by the greens and browns of the marsh. The second such sighting in as many hours. There were no birds, plants or other wildlife in that particular blood red shade so that could only mean one thing: they were being followed by Iwa shinobi. Sakura tensed at the thought - shooting a glance at her running companions.

Iwa were near. She knew they suspected she might betray them. Might have been working with enemies from the start. The atmosphere had turned tense and brittle to the point where no one spoke. Not even Naruto. She could feel their eyes on her when they thought she wasn't looking, knew that Sai and Sasuke had discretely began to slip behind her for a reason. They were ready to take her out at the first sign of betrayal.

Another hour passed before Kakashi suddenly, abruptly drew to a halt. Everyone else stopped, looking at him quizzically, Naruto complained loudly and with many gestures. Sakura felt her heart drop to her toes - if he suspected her, she would have to make a run for it now. As confident as she was about her fighting skills them plus Iwa shinobi would not make for a battle she would come out of.

"We all know we're being followed," he said calmly, charging straight into the matter," So, I propose we split."

"Kaka-sensei! -" Naruto began, voice increasing to a volume that made her wince.

Kakashi held up a single hand to silence him, before Sasuke casually punched him in the head hard enough to bruise.

"Naruto, Sai and Sasuke will go ahead, get to the town and make sure it's secure. Since Sakura, Yamato and I have the field knowledge and greater stealth aspect we'll go around the back and take out the Iwa following us."

Kakashi delivered his orders with a steel backed tone. Subconsciously, Sakura felt herself relax minutely; he didn't suspect her. That filled her with unidentifiable warmth that spread from her fingers to her toes. The rest of the group frowned fiercely, save for Naruto who was still muttering away to himself and rubbing his golden blond head with a childlike pout on his face.

Sasuke turned to stare in the general direction they had been running - it was clear from the way he was craning his neck and scanning the horizon that he still could not identify where the town was. Sakura could, but she had years more experience in this terrain. Pausing, she considered helping him and decided that - since he was Kakashi's teammate and she had been travelling with him for several days - it would be acceptable for him to give him aid. Even if he was an outsider.

Stepping forward, she approached him on quiet feet as the rest debated formation and tactics. He turned to stare down at her with those familiar dark eyes narrowed in suspicion. She knew without looking that his hand was brushing his kunai pouch.

"You can see the flag pole of the town from here - use that as your guide." He silently turned to frown fiercely in the direction she pointed.

After a few minutes of waiting for him to find it, and mentally bemoaning the tracking skills of Konoha shinobi, Sakura became impatient. Grasping Sasuke's head brazenly in both hands, she firmly turned it until he was facing the right direction despite the way she felt him tense. His hair was soft and sleek against her fingertips, like the feathers of a raven. The slight prick of a kunai could be felt against the soft skin of her thigh but she ignored it. She had half expected him to try and pummel her for this blatant disregard of etiquette.

"Are you blind? Look." She grumbled, still holding his head in her slender hands.

His slim hand moved to swat hers away - eyes flaring red as he stared into the distance. "No, I see it."

"You see it now that I've shown you," she said, placing her hands on her generous hips and smiling despite his scowl," Good. Now, if you see mist swirling in a counter clockwise direction, backtrack and go around; that is a marsh whirlpool. Avoid anything warm coloured; red, orange, yellow. And do not, under any circumstances follow anything that shines or glows - we do not need another victim to marsh lights."

His lip thinned to an irritated line, but she could tell that he had listened because of the way his dark eyes had followed the rapid movement of her lips. Sakura had grown up around too many grumpy, emotionally stunted men to be bothered by the behaviour of another one. Tossing her pink hair, she turned to deliver the same information to Naruto - who had ambled over probably with the intention of repaying Sasuke for his earlier punch.

"Marsh lights, eh? What do they do?" Naruto asked, shrunching up his nose in confusion.

His curiosity might have been endearing if he didn't seem so idiotic half of the time. Still, she marginally preferred talking to him than Sasuke - his enthusiasm could be almost pleasant and infectious. However, in the field it would do for him to be more serious.

"Those who know have passed to the Land of the Dead," she shrugged, wanting to return to Kakashi and head off to meet the Iwa and prove that she was loyal.

"Iwa have no honour - we should not trust so easily. She could very likely be a spy." Sai murmured, voice only just reaching them.

Sakura felt her entire being stiffen and focused on keeping her expression flat in front of Naruto and Sasuke. Although the doubted the first would notice, and the second was currently still fixated on some point in the distant marsh.

"We'll rendezvous at the town entrance," Kakashi said firmly, not defending her.

That stung more than she cared to admit. Frowning, she turned away from Naruto with her upper lip curling in distaste, or hurt. She let her anger swell rather than allow bitter sadness to fill her thoughts. It didn't matter what they thought. She was just a guide to them because of her damned compassion. Tatsuo always did say it was a problem, and maybe she should have listened.

Naruto pressed his palm firmly to her forehead, completely interrupting her furious thoughts, and forcibly smoothed the deep frown lines that had formed there. His hand was large, gentle and reassuringly warm against her wind chilled skin.

"Neh, Sakura-chan, don't look so angry all the time!" He grumbled good naturedly, clearly not having heard Sai's words.

She blinked sharply, unsure whether to hit him or not. When he pressed both of his index fingers to the corners of her full mouth and forcibly tilted her lips into a smile she clipped him lightly on the chin. "Naruto!" She hissed, stern voice faltering as a giggle threatened to surface.

"That's better!" He exclaimed, smiling widely himself as a smile tugged at her mouth despite the effort she put into curbing it.

"Come on," Naruto threw his arm casually over her shoulders, bright orange fabric almost engulfing her," We'll have our feet up and be eating ramen by sundown."

Kakashi was clearly almost finished his conversation. She could tell he thought she might have heard - her spike of chakra would have indicated something - and Sai, Yamato and him had moved out of hearing distance. They nodded a few times - some sort of agreement seeing to have been reached. Naruto sagged on her a little more, squeezing her forearm gently; clearly pleased she hadn't elbowed him in the ribs at the first opportunity.

Of course, Sakura felt she had to claw back some of the distance between them.

Throwing off his arm and striding away she hissed, "There is no ramen for at least 50 miles around here!"

Unfortunately, the teasing light in her eyes and the small smile on her face might have dulled the affect somewhat.

...

Yamato gestured to her as she walked purposefully over. He was always pleasant to her, polite, but at times she just couldn't get the image of those vines wrapped around Kazu's neck out of her head. Even if he didn't kill him; she still felt residual antagonism towards him, which she supposed at times he didn't deserve. It was, after all, just orders and not anything personal.

Unfortunately the nature of Iwa teams made it very difficult to take it anything but personally.

Smiling just a little tightly she spoke, "Are we ready?"

Turning to gesture to Kakashi's retreating back he replied with a small smile of his own, "When Kakashi-senpai has finished briefing the others."

They lapsed into a slightly tense silence, but probably only on her part. Sakura focused on checking her pouch to ensure that all of her equipment was present and correct and fiddling with the scales of her armour to check and see if her handiwork was holding up well enough. She mentally noted that the final layer of gloss was perhaps a little thin and she considered correcting that when they reached the town later.

In the back of her mind, hurt bubbled black and caustic, but with well-practised motions she kept it pushed to the corner of her thoughts.

Glancing up, she noticed Yamato rubbing a finger under his strange headgear - clearly uncomfortable. Up close the tiniest discolouration - redness and puffiness around his eyes - was visible that she hadn't paid attention to before. Rummaging through her many pouches, she produced some ointment - debating with herself for half a second about giving it to him, before going ahead with it anyway.

"You didn't tell me you had allergies," she admonished, unscrewing the cap of the jar.

His large, dark eyebrows drew together for a moment as his dark eyes studied her carefully, but with no malicious intent that she could detect, "Not really - it's not important."

She proffered the open jar, "This will take two minutes, and you'll feel a lot better," she paused, able to muster a smile, "promise."

Yamato eyed the gelatinous, grey-ish gunge presented to him more than a little dubiously, before shrugging. Sakura was quite sure he had picked that up from being around Kakashi too much, but he didn't pull it off with the same effortlessness. His shoulders remained a little too stiff, his back too straight. She watched him closely as he applied it thinly to the areas she instructed - ready to pick up on any mistake.

"I'll make a mixture for you to take tonight that should get rid of it altogether," Sakura said, feeling a small twinge of guilt and disgust at her own helpfulness.

Apparently it was hard to drop the patriotism practically bred into her by her home country.

He smiled showing even white teeth and canines that were just a smidge longer than what would be considered normal, "Thanks."

She shook her head, feeling uncomfortable and wanting to squirm away from his honest, pleasant smile. He seemed to notice her discomfort and moved a slight step back to motion to Kakashi to hurry. Screwing the cap back onto the jar, Sakura carefully slid it back into its proper place and paused - hand brushing her forlorn weapon pouch. She had dumped the vast majority of her weapons in the same swamp she had tossed her old armour into and was now deeply regretting it.

A few had been retained for practical reasons - gutting fish, skinning rabbits, and such - and one had been kept for personal reasons. It had an engraved handle and a tiny stone set in it - her birthstone; a gift from boys who simply couldn't fathom what else to get her for her birthday. Sakura could just imagine the conversation between Kazu and Tatsuo; 'she's a girl - she must like fancy stones and sparkly things!', 'but she's a ninja! - have to get her weapons'.

Blinking, she looked down to see several kunai extended towards her, hilt first. Yamato looked a little sheepishly towards the ground - as though embarrassed... or about to stab her in the neck and looking embarrassed to cover that.

"I, uh, noticed you're not exactly equipped as a ninja should be, Haruno-san," he said, quietly, as Kakashi began to stroll casually towards them - as though they weren't being hunted down and about to run into battle.

"I promise that even though I'm as _equipped _as you are Yamato-san," Sakura said, smiling, unable to stop herself from taking advantage of his slight nerves and pointedly looking downwards slightly before dragging them back up,"I'm sure I'll be fine."

"Weapon-wise," he said, lifting the kunai a little higher as though imploring her to take them.

"That too," she purred, trying to stifle the laughter that threatened to bubble over.

Something drove her to tease him just this once. Maybe it was the dark, threatening look her shot her - shadows falling strangely on his heavily lidded eyes and smooth, straight mouth. She felt on the edge - angry and irritated, but still vaguely happy. Or maybe it was hysteria - that was a definite possibility. Just as she decided to relieve him of the kindly offered kunai (which she really did need, despite her contrary attitude) Kakashi drew even with them.

"Sakura, you can examine Yamato's _weapons_ in far greater detail later," Kakashi intoned, voice both amused and steely - as though it was their actions that were holding them back from departing and not his.

If it were any other situation - Sakura might have blushed. She might have hit him. She might have ignored him. Anger at his previous remark - or lack of remark - about her trustworthiness seemed to bubble to a frothy rage that implored her to either leave them to die in this swampy wasteland, or humiliate him somehow. Her own embarrassment could wait if she could elicit his.

"As long as you promise to help, _sensei_."

...

They ran quickly, purposefully, with Sakura directing them and Kakashi ultimately calling the shots.

The ninja they found weren't as experienced as Sakura might first have thought. There were four - all dark haired, all dark eyed and all men; they could have quite easily been a great number of people she used to know if she glanced at them from a distance. The aquiline features, scowls and red armour made her nostalgic in the worst possible way - like a great, gaping, black hole had been punched in her stomach and nothing could fill it.

Still, she drew one of her newly acquired kunai and pointed Kakashi around a whirlpool. Sakura knew the breaks in the armour, knew how to slide a kunai just so between the scales in order to swipe at the vulnerable skin, knew every defence move they had been taught and how to counter it. She felt every part the Judas she was sure all her dead relatives and friends would consider her to be as she took out the first and helped with the second.

On the other hand; battle could be glorious.

Sakura had forgotten what it felt like to fight beside someone familiar. Watching Kakashi's sleek movements - timed to perfection - and the way he moved effortlessly around her; helping, protecting; made her feel almost happy. It was more than happy, she supposed, jamming her foot into someone else's ribs - it was an almost fierce elation. A healthy burn like the hot, clean feeling of strenuous exercise.

Her anger and hurt took a backseat to this. Proper teamwork left no room for emotions - it ran like a finely tuned piece of machinery with every piece in the right place.

And then it was over; the last hand flopping lifelessly onto the filthy muck and bringing back the rush of emotions swamping her with it. Kakashi patted her awkwardly on the head as she slumped slightly.

"Well done," his visible eye crinkled, "That must have been difficult."

She supposed he meant fighting Iwa rather than the actual skill of their opponents.

"They reminded me of my teammates a bit - so I suppose, "She let out a breathy theatrical sigh.

"Your teammates," He repeated, seemingly for no reason as they began to run again.

"Kazu...hiko. You met him," she referred to the tombstone," He was my favourite out of the two. Pleasant, reliable, and very good with poisons and plants. It was his teaching that stopped you from dying that day in the plains," Sakura gave him a reproachful look. "He was very loyal to Iwa even though he was Kusa by birth - by blood - and... when Kusa defected he didn't ever really get over it, yeah."

"Was it Konoha?"

Kakashi left the _who killed him _part out, but she knew in a lightning flash that was what he meant.

"Isn't it always?" She answered, frowning.

He made an irritable noise that she chose to ignore.

"That's not what killed Tatsuo though."

Kakashi raised his single visible eyebrow in questioning, but she continued with her description anyway. "Annoying and violent and hateful, that's about a good summary of Tatsuo. Iwa loyal to the core, maybe even more than Kazu... If they could see me now," she severed that line of thought as soon as it appeared," But he was strong enough, and very protective of us when it mattered. A good tracker - and an even better cook."

"I don't suppose that skill rubbed off..."

She laughed lightly, mockingly, "I am far more likely to poison you."

The issue of Tatsuo's death was clearly still buzzing at the front of his mind, but he did not press her for the information. Sakura was partly grateful, and partly irritated. Some part of her wanted to tell him as a warning - as a barrier to completely fortify new walls between them. The lines were blurring too quickly; she wanted the distance back as much as she craved contact.

They reached the town - Naruto, Sasuke and Sai - with no further issues. She made a point of shrugging Kakashi off when he moved to catch her elbow and lead her into the only hotel to let him know that she wasn't at all pleased with him.

...

It would be a few hours later, when they sat nursing their respective drinks in the bar, that Kakashi would bring the issue up again.

"You never told me how he died."

Lowering her head slightly, she drew the straw between her lips - mindful of Kakashi's dark gaze following the movement and took a long, savouring slurp of the sweet, if alcoholic beverage. If the others hadn't left to unpack in their rooms and showered she would not have said the statement she was considering. But, they were alone in a booth - surrounded with dark wood and darker leather in a dim little corner all by themselves.

Minutes before the rest of the team had been crammed into that small space - knocking back drinks and questionable peanuts with break-neck speed. It had been almost unpleasant - all the sweaty, muddy, unwashed bodies and so little space that she couldn't shift without touching someone. Now, with just the two of them - the space seemed somehow even smaller than it had been with six people in it. Sakura was acutely aware of him.

"I killed him." She punctuated the statement with a sweet smile, and she could tell that threw Kakashi off.

The dark closeness of the space and the muffled sounds of the bar around them seemed to isolate everything save from their conversation. She could almost see the wheels turning in his head - trying to determine whether she was being sarcastic or not.

"You..."

"Wrapped my hands around his neck, yeah. Squeezed with my bare fingers and watched his eyes pop like a _kodomo_'s balloon."

The silence became so thick, Sakura felt she could cut it, squeeze it and shape it with her bare fingers. His expression remained flat and unresponsive, but his hands tightened around his glass until she was sure the knuckles were almost bone white under his gloves. Never one to miss an opportunity, Sakura seized the one she saw for maximum effect.

"I'm Iwa - don't you know we have no honour?"

His single eye blinked, and then sharpened to the point where she almost felt sorry. Kakashi reached for her with a gloved hand, but she scrambled back across the sticky, leather more quickly than she might have liked - her stilted movements betraying the emotions that threatened to bubble over.

"Sakura -"

"It is Haruno-san to you, Hatake-san," she said quietly, furiously, before launching into the statement she had prepared, "You are not permitted to sleep by me. I have no wish to share a sleeping space."

At that, she emerged from the booth with her head held high - ignoring his call of her name - viciously hoping her words had hurt him the way he had hurt her.

Now, that was one hell of an insult - she hoped he would understand that. Sakura remembered the way Tatsuo had gasped like a fish out of water the first time she had told him that - after he hit Kazu in the face hard enough to fracture his jaw, seemingly just because he felt like it. He had stormed off after that and demolished half a training ground - silently, furiously. Come nightfall however, when the prospect of sleeping alone and undefended became a very real possibility, he practically kissed the ground he bowed so low in apology.

Now, as night fell, Sakura was faced with a similar dilemma - only Kakashi didn't seem like he was the type to grovel for forgiveness. Rolling over, she stared hard at the vast expanse of flowing, empty white sheets that seemed to stretch for eons. The lack of another body beside her made that itchy, crawling, toe-curling feeling of exposure scrape over her skin - she had almost gotten used to it, but now it was like starting from scratch all over again.

Eventually, it got to the point where she felt compelled to stand and pace. The emptiness of the room and the bed within it pressed upon her at all sides. Briefly, she considered finding one of the others; Naruto and maybe, maybe Yamato... But she didn't trust them enough. Didn't trust them with her bare, unarmoured body in the night as she slept. She felt like a hermit crab that had crawled out of its shell with the prospect of a new, bigger home only to lose both and be left vulnerable to the world.

Skin was hardly a shield and she doubted either would take kindly to her appearing in the night in full battle regalia.

Another ten minutes passed, and Sakura came to terms with the fact that she simply wasn't getting any sleep if she was by herself. Rolling over, she pulled herself out of the clinging bed sheets and padded through the hall on silent feet. Cracking open the door, she slinked over to the bed knowing that Kakashi was watching her - that eerie red eye let off the faintest glow that followed her as she crept over.

"I don't forgive you," she said, curling her lip, "but I can't sleep."

"Maybe I don't want to share a sleeping space with you." Came his reply, half muffled by the sheets pulled up past his nose.

Her heart gave a pathetic little flop at that, before sinking to rest firmly by her toes. Sakura fought to keep the hurt look off of her face, but had obviously failed judging on the uncomfortable expression that flitted across what was visible on Kakashi's face. She turned away and made to leave before she embarrassed herself more, when a large warm arm wrapped itself gently around her waist.

Of course, her first instinct was to brutally snap it off, but she was glad she hadn't when he spoke gruffly, "Come here, then."

...

Kakashi wasn't a deep sleeper by nature - particularly on missions - but he found himself sunk fully into a particularly deep slumber and loathe to leave it. This may or may not have had something to do with the little pink haired kunoichi wrapped around him like a human blanket, but he chose to disregard that thought and any about the pleasantness of her warm, soft weight, or her light, but still somehow earthy and rich scent.

By all accounts he should have slept terribly - another body having always been a complete disturbance to someone as firmly entrenched in bachelorhood as he was. Sakura woke not long after him with a deep, satisfied sigh that sank into his very bones with a warming feeling. Squirming free, she stretched languidly like a sated cat in a way that had him deliberately staring at the ceiling.

Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she put a little more distance between them and withdrew the glow of body heat that had kept him firmly relaxed for some time.

"M'sorry," she mumbled, yawning expansively, "I've been told many times that I'm an incorrigible - how do you say? - snuggler."

He shrugged as though he hadn't noticed or been affected in any way and ran a hand through his particularly messy hair - wincing as his fingers caught on numerous snags and tangles. Sakura noticed, bright green eyes brightening significantly with an affectionate edge that was deeply unsettling and which he - probably wisely - did not comment on. Doing so would probably result in her throwing the nearest thing she could reach at him.

"I will brush your hair for you."

Kakashi had learned not to argue when she used a certain tone. This early in the morning, especially, it wasn't worth the effort.

"Another teammate activity?" He threw over his shoulder, as he turned to allow her access to his back.

There was some rustling as she extracted the hairbrush, and then a depression in the mattress behind him as she settled herself ridiculously close. His traitorous mind pointed out that, if he leaned back just the tiniest fraction, his back would brush against her firm, unbound chest. This wasn't like the last time they had met - when she was just a girl, just on the cusp of adulthood but not quite there. But she still seemed not to acknowledge the far more adult undercurrent that ran between them.

"Of course," she answered, a smile obvious in her tone.

She started working from the back forward - gentle, but still firm enough to remove even the most stubborn knots. The soft tugging and shifting put Kakashi on edge more than he would like to admit - his body was completely attuned to her - every brush of her tiny finger magnified, every slight glance of her body against his noticed to a degree that was almost painful. It was both a relief and a regret when she announced that she was finished - running her hands through his hair one last time for good measure.

"I'm going to have a shower," Kakashi said, standing and moving away from her distracting presence.

She turned to root around in her belongings - producing two bottles and a washcloth - before standing and looking at him expectantly. His throat went dry instantly - the lump that formed making it difficult to swallow.

"Alone." He grunted, the word sticking to his tongue and making his mouth feel thick and fuzzy.

Sakura folded her arms and rolled her eyes as though he was being the difficult, contrary one. "It's just flesh, Kakashi - honestly. It's not anything either of us hasn't ever seen before. Besides, this way saves water."

"It's not the water I'm worried about."

"Your face...? You can keep the silly mask on if you need to."

"Not my face either."

She looked him up and down with her curious almond shaped, almost cat-like eyes - a tiny smirk quirking the edge of her mouth. A blush spread across his face in a hot wave of blood before he could stop it - as though he was some kind of easily flustered schoolboy. Sakura noticed and giggled slightly - drawing her green nailed hands up to cover her dainty, rose petal coloured mouth.

"Leafs are prudes," she laughed, collapsing back into the sheets in an attractive, mussed tumble.

"Iwa have no concept of personal space." He retorted, ignoring the part of his mind that launched itself at the idea of having her in the shower, bare to his gaze.

She let him go by himself, and when he emerged - clothes already on, hair half towelled dry and sticking up all over the place - she brushed by to get some of the scarce hot water. Letting out the breath he hadn't realised he had been holding in, Kakashi slumped into a sitting position on the bed, feeling for the Icha Icha he knew he had left there. Just as he found the small, often read book his eyes caught the sight of the brush Sakura had left lying in the sheets.

Thick pink hairs clumped between the bristles, but here and there strands like silver wire glittered from amongst the candyfloss coloured strands in a potent image of domesticity that threw him entirely off guard.

...

* * *

To all my readers and reviewers; thanks for your sexiness. Seriously - reviews make me grin like an idiot, even when (like an idiot) I don't reply know that I still get a kick out of what you've written. It's especially lovely to hear from people in exotic, crazy-far-away places. I mean right now, I'm sitting in a little 'ol house in (a particularly rainy at this moment) Scotland and somebody said they read this while waiting for their rice to cook in Japan. It boggles the mind.

Thanks for Reading!

Silver ~ x


	6. Chapter 6

**Between a Rock and a Hard Place**

* * *

...

A rustle.

A flash of red by the foot of her bed. Sakura did not pounce like she wanted to, but instead made a show of stretching amongst the sheets with her eyes fixed on the intruder. She had always been taught the importance of putting on a good show, even if she felt frightened, or uneasy. Red eyes regarded her cooly despite the flaming colour.

"What? She grumbled, stretching her arms until her palms flattened against the wood of the headboard.

He said nothing, but Sakura thought she saw the beginnings of a sneer forming on his pale features. She sat up, abruptly, and let the sheet fall deliberately to pool at her waist. Her bare breasts stood were revealed without ceremony to his gaze, her pale pink nipples hardening in the air despite its warmth. Predictably, a light blush formed above his defined cheekbones and his steady gaze wavered a little.

"Are you sleepy?" Sakura slid back the covers, and cocked a coral eyebrow at him,"Please join me."

The one called Uchiha Sasuke looked downright mortified at this point and his furious scowl reminded her almost painfully of Tatsuo.

"You're _annoying," _he grumbled, and her amusement reached his zenith. She didn't even bother to hide her smirk."We need you to plot out a route on the map because - "

"- Another urgent messenger hawk has come through and the team needs to split up," Yamato finished, as he slid back the reed screen to step into the small room.

He froze as soon as his brown eyes fixed upon her. Sakura could feel herself beginning to shake with pent-up laughter. Now, she wanted to go to Konoha, if only to walk bare-breasted through the streets for her own amusement. In the hot months of summer, Iwa women though nothing of going topless, just as the men did. The Konoha reaction to her was just plain _precious_.

"Of course, Yamato-san, I would be very happy to do so," Sakura said, as she twisted out from beneath the sheets and ran a hand through her tangled hair. It was so hot and humid, she had to peel the fabric back from her skin.

She absently adjusted her_ Susoyoke _where it hung at her generous hips. It was one of the nicest things she owned; a mint green half-slip, with embroidered pearl thread designs that extended down to mid-thigh. She had kept it out of sentimentality, but would be quick to beat anyone who dared suggest that fact. The heat had caused her to forgo any other clothing; she hadn't thought that would be a problem and Kakashi either hadn't noticed last night, or didn't care, or didn't want to comment.

Yamato swallowed heavily; she watched his adam's apple bob up and down before his eyes slid back up to focus on her face. She knew that her _Susoyoke _was just the wrong side of sheer, but had never really thought about it before. It had never been a problem before.

"Where is the map?" She asked, advancing on them both,"I can get it done right away if you tell me where it is you want to go?"

"Perhaps you,"Yamato swallowed again, Sasuke remained silent" should put something else on, Sakura-san?" His voice almost sounded pleading, this was starting to get more annoying than funny.

She tossed her head in a contemptuous spray of pink strands. "Nonsense. We are a team now, no? Kakashi told me that leaf teams change all the time, so now you are my team and I will treat you like my team until you are not."

"I don't know what you mean by _team_, Sakura-san," Yamato said, sounding as though he was choosing his words carefully,"but, uh..." His familiar brown eyes flickered to the bed, and suddenly Sakura was caught with the urge to laugh, or to scream.

"If you're implying what I think you're implying, then you should just _stop right there, Leaf-boy_."

"Excuse me? Sakura-_reifujin? _May I _taidan _with you?" The heavily accented male voice emanating from the corridor momentarily paused the tirade of threats she had been about to unleash, and she smiled, before striding out into the corridor with an assenting shout of '_zehi'._

She bowed deeply to the village Elder's first son - she could tell who he was because of the woven reed sash slung around his wide set shoulders - and chimed a pleasant greeting. He bowed to her in return and reached over to kiss her on her cheeks. They exchanged a few more pleasantries and he proferred a basket of food supplies, while thanking her profusely for the herbal remedies she had mixed up for the village the night before. Neither Yamato, nor Sasuke said anything.

"See? It is only you who thinks skin is obscene. It is normal," she announced, after the first born had left.

"And sleeping_ with_ Kakashi, is that normal Iwa behaviour as well?" Sasuke said, in a measured tone she knew he thought would sting. Just like Tatsuo.

She saw in Yamato's face that he wanted to intervene, but also was curious as to her answer. That they thought so little of her was no great surprise. Konoha's own always did think so much less of all who were not them.

"Sleeping _beside_ a team-mate you respect is, yes. But I don't expect a Leaf like you to really understand that. You only respect yourself. You do not trust anyone with your bare back. Are not _brave_ enough to trust anyone with your bare back, yeah" she bit out, remembering how he had slept at the far end of the cave, facing the entrance - how if he slept any closer to the wall he would merge with it.

"That is weak," he hissed, eyes flashing back to that bloody red that matched Kakashi's damaged eye.

"Alone is weak." She turned and strode down the corridor, strutting proudly in only her _Susoyoke _and her skin_._

She felt less triumphant and more unsure the moment she rounded the corridor. Everything was so different with them; the way the spoke, the way they acted, even the way they _ate_... Deep down, Sakura had been considering Kakashi's offer even though it brought her great guilt and pain to do so because, really, what did she have left?

She could stay somewhere like here - in the heart of the marshes - and eat the roasted swamp-rat that those Konoha ones refused to touch, and lounge on low slung branches that just skimmed the brackish water, and let the rasping chirp of all the crickets lull her into sleep every night. She could marry someone like the first-born and cast off her armour in favour of the woven cloak of his family, and beads of precious stones woven in her hair; sit by his side at the many gatherings and festivals, sleep in his bed, bear his children... all under the full, watery moon that lingered above. She wondered if even the stars in Konoha were different.

When she had turned a few of the sharp corners, sure that she was alone, Sakura raised both hands to her face. She listened to the low hum of the marsh wildlife for a long minute and palmed a few, hot, shameful tears from her face. She hadn't cried in years.

"If you want to be accepted, you may consider following a more Konoha-style of doing things. After all, as you said, alone is weak." Kakashi's voice was low, and rolled over her like fog cresting a hill.

Of course she wasn't alone. She didn't turn to look at him where he stood very close, but she could feel the heat from his body even over the heat of the air.

"You were watching?" She said; voice cracking slightly, like varnished wood in a fire.

"Yes."

Sakura dragged her palms across her face once more to scrub away the last few tears that had dribbled out, and rubbed the silky fabric at her hips absently, to comfort herself.

"He reminds me of Tatsuo, that Uchiha boy," she said, finally turning to look at Kakashi.

He was silent for a long moment before leaning on the wall. She thought about telling him that these reed structures were not very stable, but decided that seeing him plunge into the weed strewn water might cheer her up a bit.

"That's nice," he muttered, instead of addressing the Tatsuo issue, gesturing to her _Susoyoke._

Sakura felt a smile curling at the corners of her mouth despite herself,"My dorm-mother made it for me as a special present when I left the dorm after I graduated. It is the colour of my chakra, for luck, and" she noticed that he'd stopped looking when she held it up to the light, but kept going anyway," the designs mean lots of things."

"Lots of things," he echoed, looking at her face so deliberately she knew he was straining not to look elsewhere.

"The usual; good fortune, good health, happiness, abundance of fertility -" Kakashi spluttered a little at that, as though he had chocked on his own saliva.

The sound of a zipper made her start slightly when he shrugged off his green jounin vest and pulled off the tight, black shirt beneath it. With a slow, almost bored gesture he made her lift her arms and she did so because of how distracting his torso was encased in nothing but that silly net material the Leaf loved so much. Perhaps this was how he felt when he saw her bare.

The material was weird; clingy and close. She pulled at it and it snapped back to her skin immediately. It would be almost ineffectual against the warm, humidity of the marsh. It would do very little against weapons either.

"Your clothes aren't good for this climate," she said.

"Your lack of clothes aren't good for our _team_ climate," he replied, slinging back on his vest and zipping it up.

She found her eyes following his skin as it was covered and snapped, "That doesn't make any sense."

He shrugged in a long movement that seemed to start at the tip of his toes and end at the quivering point of his silver hair and Sakura felt a lot of the tension drain out of her body without knowing why. The Leaf way would be another challenge to learn, and she had never failed at challenges - if she had, she'd have been long dead by now.

"I am going to have to take notes about the Konoha-style of doing things; so far all I have is - be a prude and wear stupid clothes that hug you tighter than a leech."

He didn't answer - just turned and led her down the corridor. She knew he was a letch and thought he would rise to her accusation; she had seen that damned orange book all those years ago. He didn't though - just sauntered down the thin path like he owned the place.

"And you must explain to me what you have instead of a dorm-mother," Sakura said, still pulling at that stupid shirt; it was so tight she became strangely more aware of how her body moved within it, how it clung to the contours of her form.

"How do you know we don't have them?" Kakashi had already brought out one of those hideous books - she recognised the mark on the back.

"You did that thing with your eyebrow when I mentioned mine. That Iwa-are-freaks twitch. It makes me want to tear your face off."

Down the corridor, she saw the sleek, dark head of the Uchiha and knew that he had slowed his pace to listen to what they were saying; just like Tatsuo. She pointedly ignored his presence and did not call out in greeting. Despite the emergency change in plans both him and Yamato had mentioned, none of the team seemed to be in a particular hurray. Lazy Leafs.

"Well," Kakashi dragged out finally, as though each word was pulled unwillingly from his mouth," we generally stay with our parents, or family, if we have any left."

"That is not conductive to team spirit. Not good for the collective." The words dashed from her without thought; part of the entire principle of Iwa. One family, one unit, one collective, one goal, one...

She stopped herself and tried, painfully, to think the Konoha way. She may as well start now. It was like turning rusty gears in her head. She thought of the cheerful, smiling face of her dorm-mother, and then her ferocious scowl, when angered, and all of her dorm-sisters squabbling at the mirror for space and giggling in heaps of pigtails, and clean skin as they talked about boys. She couldn't imagine a small, sterile dwelling with just a few people. Her heart felt empty as a balloon with all the air let out.

"I'm not saying the Iwa way is wrong -"

"But you're thinking it," she cut across him.

"But in Konoha, I suppose we think a few people are maybe all you need. That individuals are more than just small parts of a whole, but entities in themselves." Kakashi waved his hand as though it didn't matter to him, but she knew it mattered to his very core.

"A wolf without a pack starves when winter comes."

"Then maybe you should try summer in Konoha," Lightening quick he cupped her chin with one, gloved hand, and she knew in an instant that he could destroy her just as easily as he could have done all those years ago. He let her go only to rub a strand of hair between his fingers; the garish pink that she had once shaved off in order to prove herself strong, not vain. She could see that Uchiha had given up all pretences of walking and had paused to watch them with eyes narrowed like splinters of rubies.

"Spring colours suit you much better than Iwa ever did."

She could think of no retort, and stood a long time after he had left without another word. There was something about that man that ripped her entire world view in two.

...

"So, what's the change in plan?" Sakura asked, forcing herself to place a gentle hand on Yamato's back.

God, this integrating with the Leafs thing was hard. It was much easier when she could just break them to pieces with no thought as to their culture, or them as people.

He started as though she had shocked him, though she hadn't snuck up on him, but smiled a little after a moment. She let her hand fall casually and muscled her way into the space between his chair and the wall.

"We're sending Naruto, Sai and Sasuke to this village in order to -"

"What! We're splitting up again! And I'm stuck with teme!" Naruto's yells almost shook the whole structure, and Sakura mentally wondered if she would have to raise her voice about five octaves to fit in.

"You'll do as you're told," Yamato growled, voice deepening and tilting his head so that the light fell strangely on his strong features.

Naruto back-peddled immediately, and she could tell that this was an often repeated occurance.

"But I'm sure Sakura-chan would like to spend more time with the better members of the team." He waggled his blond eyebrows at her and she found herself amused rather than infuriated. In Iwa, she would have tackled him to the floor and twisted his fingers until he screeched for mercy. Perhaps this change would be easier than she thought.

She stuck her tongue out at him and he seemed inwardly delighted despite the fact that he pouted. His eyes sparkled like the clearest, mountain spring.

"So, if you could plot a course, Sakura-san?" Yamato looked at her expectantly, strange expression gone.

She nodded an affirmative - she knew that area fairly well - and quickly scribbled in a route along with a bunch of instructions, and penned a back-up route just in case they got cut off or had to divert. She didn't bother to ask why they were going. It was none of her business. Up close, she saw the slight redness of Yamato's skin that she had noticed before and realised that she had forgotten to see about his allergies.

"You forgot to remind me to help you," she admonished, curling her fingers under her headgear after Naruto had been sent off with the plans.

"It's not important."

"Shut up," she replied, exposing his entire face. He looked younger.

She flexed her fingers, mindful of how he flinched and pressed them to his skin. There was a faint sheen of sweat - which she had noticed on all of the Leafs except from the other dark haired one, Sai. They really weren't used to this humidity. He didn't relax despite how gentle she made her chakra, but she didn't expect him to. If anything, she was surprised he let her heal him at all.

"How does that feel?"

He nodded rather than answer and strapped his headband back into place. She felt him relax minutely when it was clear she wasn't going to gut him now that they were alone. Some deep part of her suggested that she should - for Kazu - but Sakura had to remind herself that Yamato had just been doing his job and it wasn't personal.

She liked his bracelet though, even if it reminded her of those vines he used, and she told him so.

"Well, I can make one for you," Yamato said, looking away from her as he said it.

"Please."

Sakura watched, faintly amazed, as the vine seemed to come _from _his palm.

"Was your mother part tree?" She asked, pleased by the slight tilt of his mouth, though he didn't answer.

She felt at ease to watch it at liberty now that he wasn't trying to strangle her with them. At least, she hoped not. It slithered up her fingers and twisted around her wrist in a sinuous movement; sealing itself like a snake eating its own tail. He flicked his hand when he was done, as though getting rid of something on it.

She clasped it gently and rubbed it around her wrist.

"Just ask me if you want it off."

She kissed him on the cheek as a 'thank you' because she didn't know how Leafs expressed a gratitude that bloomed inside like a flower under the warmth of the sun.

...

Sakura left Yamato to his final checks to go and find Kakashi and see where they were headed. She paused at the doorway when she noticed the lantern hanging above it; a teardrop of glass with vivid marsh-fire inside. A rarity. Tatsuo had gotten one for their team compound, and he had never told them where he had got it, just smiled and -

"So -"

She whirled around at the deep voice sounding behind her, half in memory and half not,"Aw, just_ leave_ it, Tatsuo-_ai_!"

It was the Uchiha again. He just seemed to be hanging around her like stink on a swamp-hog. In that moment all the acceptance she had begun to feel melted away like ice on a hot day. She deeply regretted her outburst and stayed silent as he looked at her closely. Perhaps he wanted to get back at her for embarrassing him by asking him to get into bed with her earlier.

Iwa men were simple. She didn't know where she stood with this one.

"Tatsuo-ai?"

"Tatsuo was my teammate. You are very like him." She didn't bother to lie. He stepped a bit closer, movements sinuous and silent. Up close his hair was more blue than black.

"And the ai?"

"Is none of your fucking business."

He made a soft 'tch' noise and his eyes lightened slightly. She supposed that was him using what they referred to as the Sharingan, but not wholly. At that moment, she very much wanted to break his nose in several places - the most she had ever managed was four, but she thought she could beat that record. He moved even closer, and Sakura was very ready to fight; she wondered what his hair would look like when she held his head under the marsh water. But, then he backed off suddenly, as though satisfied with whatever he had seen.

"I just came to ask you about the plans, have you completed them?"

She jerked her thumb over her shoulder, glad to change the subject. "Yamato has them. 'pparently you're supposed to leave in about an hour."

When he moved to go past her, he deliberately brushed against her in a way that made her hackles raise ferociously.

Just like Tatsuo.

Then, another voice, "Ai?"

Sakura twitched slightly and scowled at Kakashi. "You are lucky I am used to having no privacy."

Then, rather than dance around words with him - she didn't feel up to it - Sakura just told him,"He was my lover. It is usual to select one of your team."

"In Iwa," Kakashi said, lending a strange note to that she didn't entirely like.

"And who was I supposed to sleep with? Enemies?" She looked at him sideways from beneath a fringe of pink lashes,"Old men I found in the grass?"

That seemed to diffuse the tension between them, and he just tilted his head as though he was entirely innocent and had no idea what she was talking about. He grasped her wrist and tugged at the new bracelet there.

"Yamato?"

"It was nice of him."

He nodded - almost distracted looking - and then produced her backpack as though from nothing. She slipped it on, glad that she had already gotten dressed in her full field gear. She was quite glad that they were leaving - being in one village for too long always made her antsy - but she was also quite nervous because -

"We're less than a day from the border of the Fire Country."

Sakura swallowed heavily; the weight of his expectation like a tombstone. But she wasn't a coward, and this was clearly the only real option she had left.

"I know. I'm ready."

Kakashi didn't say anything, but she saw the slight crease of his one visible eye and knew that he had understood her decision.

...

...

* * *

As usual, thanks to all my readers and reviewers; you're brill. I know this update has taken ages, but I'm very busy being a student who avoids their work until the last minute and then panics and has to cram at 3 am. I especially love hearing where all of you are from; it's so weird and cool. Man, the Internet is just mind-boggling. We'll soon see how Sakura manages in Konoha. This should be interesting, don't you think?

Thanks for Reading!

Silver ~ x


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